No. 1. PRICE, 25 CENTS. 1877. 



TRANSACTIONS 



ANNUAL MEETING 



MaUMEE VaLLEV PlONEEIi 



HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 



HELD AT TOLEDO, FEBRUARY 22d, 1877. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE ASSOCIATION 



TOLEDO, OHIO : 

BI.ADK I'KINTINO AND PAI'KK CO. 

1877. 



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i u 1 1 kJ i\ o k1 a n 1 



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NO. 1. PRICE. 25 CENTS. i877 



TRANSACTIONS 



•AT THE- 



ANNUAL MEETING 



Maumee Valley Pioneer 



HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 



HELD AT TOLEDO. FEBRUARY 22d, 1877. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE ASSOCIATION 



TOLEDO, OHIO : 

BLADE PKINTING AND PATEK ( O. 

IbTT. 



rff7 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



EXERCISES AT OPERA HOUSE, MEMORIAL ADDRESSES, &C. 



Hon. Erasmus D. Peck, 
Hon. Russell C. Thompson, 
Thomas Corlett, - . - - 
*Mrs. Mary Sophia Hunt, 
Jonathan Perkin, 
Annual Address, 
Gen. J. E. Hunt's Reminiscences, 
Col. N. M. Howard's Resolution, 
Hon. H. L. Hosmer's Letter, 



By Hon. Aslier Cook. 

By Rev. Robert McCune. 

By Mamr Brigham. 

- J?i' T. Dimlap. 

By Francis Jlollenheck. 

By Hon. E. D. Potter. 

By T. Dunlap. 



PAGE. 

3 
10 
13 
15 
17 
21 
28 
37 
39 



ADDRESSES AT BOODY HOUSE. 

Geo. Wasiiinoton, By Gen. J. C. Lee. 41 

The Early Bench and Bar, - - - By Hon. John R. Osborn. 42 

The Pioneer Press, By Clark Waggoner. 60 

Peter Navarre, ' By Chas. Kent, Esq. 61 

The Early Missions, By Elder Gavitt. 65 

Names of Arion Male Chorus, - - 66 

Names of Members, - - - 67 

♦Written by F, J. Soott, Esq 



Gift 

Autbor 
53 '05 



TRANSACTIONS 

OF THE 

MAUMEE VALLEY PIONEER 

AND 

HISTORICAL ASSOCIA TION. 



The Maumee Valley Pioneer and Historical Association met at the 
Wheeler Opera House, in Toledo, on the 22d day of February, 1877, 
at half-past ten o'clock in the morning. The meeting was called to 
order by the Vice-President, Henry Bennett. President John E. Hunt 
was absent, on account of ill-health. Elder Gavitt opened the exer- 
cises with prayer. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

Hon. Asher Cook delivered the following memorial address on the 
life of Dr. Erasmus D. Peck, of Perrysburg: 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Pioneer Association : 

To those of you who met with us at our last reunion, a vacancy is 
visible in our numbers to-day. Our worthy Vice-President, who 
t)ccupied his accustomed seat with us on that occasion, has, since our 
last meeting, been called from his earthly labors, and his vacant chair 
stands draped in mourning. 

Dr. Erasmus D. Peck, who settled at Perrysburg in the year A. D. 
1834, died December the 25th, A. D. 1876, at the age of 68 years. At 
the time of his settlement in the Maumee Valley, he was 26 years of 
age ; had shortly before received his medical diploma, and came to the 
West from Connecticut, his native State, full of hope and energy, and 
set to work with all the will of an ardent adventurer, to make for 
himself a name and a living, by unremitting attention to business. 

Unlike many other young men, who think when they have received 
their diploma their labors are ended, and the cummunity must support 
them for their good looks, (or some other negative qualities quite as 



4 Maiiniee Valley Pioneer Association. 

peculiar tc- them) Ur. Peck had the good sense to know, when he reached 
that point, his most arduous labors had oily begun. 

His work u]) to that time had been by himself, with none but fellow 
students or his instructors, as witnesses. Hut from this time forward 
the community would become witnesses, and his labors be subjected to 
the cross-fire of unfriendly criticism from competitors in practice. But. 
nothing daunted, he launched out boldly, and with an unquenchable 
faith in the ancient idea that labor concpiers all things, he soon found 
himself in posession of a good remunerative ])ractice, which he retained 
until the infirmities of age compelled him to retire from business. Dr. 
Peck was emphatically a worker, and it often seemed to those who 
knew him best he labored for the love of it. For him labor had no 
terrors. 

" Some place the bliss in action. 
Some in ease." 

Ease had no charms for Dr. Peck. His idea of the glory of man was 
in action, and he exemplified his faith by his works. 

He was eminently successful as a practicing physician. This, how- 
ever, in my judgment, was not the result of a superior critical knowl 
edge of the science of medicine, but it arose from a practical common 
sense knowledge of the human system, and the cause and nature of 
disease. 

As in law and oratory, so in the practice of medicine, the funda- 
mental qualification must be inborn, and the nature, habits, and inclina- 
tions of the physician must so harmonize with his occupation that, he 
will in his walk, and in his acts, carry health to his jiatients ; and this 
our brother did to a greater extent, perhaps, than any other man who 
has practiced medicine in this valley. The sound of his footsteps on 
the threshold, has revived the fainting hopes of the sick in many a log- 
cabin in the wilderness, and the flashes of his wit and good humor have 
cheered up desponding households, and brought life and hope iqto the 
sick room, which would have fled at the sight of pills administered in 
cold formality. Dr. Feck was born at Stafford, Conn., September i6th, 
1808. He received his elementary education in the common schools 
of the village. His medical education was obtained at Yale College 
and Berkshire Medical College, from the latter of which he graduated 
in the year 1827. 

In his younger days he spent no time in the frivolities of fashionable 
life. The earnest desire to work his way through the world, which was 
so prominent a feature of his life, was developed in youth. Games, and 
the thousand and one amusements, which are now provided for the 
young, to keep them from drinking saloons, and places of darker and 
more dangerous evils, were not needed to keep his feet in the path of 



Maiinicc I'allcy Pioneer Association, 5 

virtue, which alone leads to happiness and wealth. This was no eccen- 
tricity, but the exercise of common sense, which has led thousands be- 
sides I)r. Peck, to honors and distinction. 

It has been said human life is a poem. His was of the sterner sort, 
written in blank verse, with many of the rough, rugged Shakespearian 
digressions from the rules, which those follow more closely who write in 
softer strains, and hope to move by pathetic appeals to the tender i)as- 
sions. 

At the commencement of the ])ractice of his profession, he was less 
actuated by a desire to make money, than to gain distinciion and be 
useful to others. 

The love of money nevertheless was with him a strong, but not the 
ruling i)assion ; not, however, to be enjoyed as the miser gloats over his 
hoarded pelf, but for the uses he could put it to, in building up and 
improving the business of the country. If he sacrificed ease to make 
money, he freely gave of it to aid the moral and religious development 
of the community. If he did not respect the storms of heaven, but 
boldly defied them in the performance of duty, he cheerfully spent the 
money thus made in decorating and beautifying God's foot-stool. 

In all his money-making he turned it to some practical account. He 
did not keep it for show, nor wear it for ostentation. As soon as 
earned, it was invested in some useful occupation. There was in his 
composition but little of the imaginative. Dreams and visionary theo- 
ries he discarded, and with wonderful tenacity clung to the practical 
business of the country, and through life kept every dollar employed in 
active business — at times employing large numbers of men, and assum- 
ing all the risks incident to an active business life; and in all, singularly 
successful. He was seldom deceived in the character or ability of those 
whom he emj^loyed. He had no hobbies, and cared little for theories. 
By his magnetic influence he drew those in his employ, into such per- 
sonal relations with himself, that to deceive him would be like betraying 
a parent, while by the power of his will he controlled all their actions. 

The first business in which he engaged, outside of the practice of 
medicine, was one subsidiary to it — a drug store. Soon after, he en- 
gaged in the mercantile business, which at that time, included a sale of 
all the wares necessary for country life. This business he continued 
from the year 1839 until 1855, with eminent success, thereby making 
the bulk of his fortune. In the year 1853 he built a flouring mill on 
the Perrysburg Hydraulic Canal, and in the year 1856 bought the canal, 
and continued in control of it until 1858. In the meantime, he tried 
his luck at ship- building, still hoping to keep the commercial business 
center of the valley at Perrysburg, where it had been from the settle- 
ment of the country, until the com{)letion of the \Vabash and Erie Canal 



6 Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 

in 1846, with its northern terminus at I'oledo. With the advantages 
thus secured, Toledo soon became the business center of the valley; 
and in sjjite of the most heroic struggles, on the part of the towns at 
the foot of the rapids, they were compelled to surrender their commer- 
cial bu5>iness, and transfer their withered laurels to their rival sister, 
Toledo. 

In the year 1853 the Dayton & Michigan railroad was located from 
Dayton to Toledo. To insure its success and secure the location of 
it through' Perrysburg, a loan of credit was asked from the village and 
township of Perrysburg of sixty thousand dollars. Through the united 
efforts of Dr. Peck and Willard V. Way, this was accomplished. The 
village subscribed fifty thousand dollars and the township ten thousand. 
This had to be done by a vote of the electors, and to it there was much 
opposition, but these two men bent their whole energies to the task 
and succeeded. It is no disparagement to say that, afterwards, both 
were disappointed in the benefits which the road failed to secure to 
Perrysburg. IJor should anything be detracted from their foresight, 
for at that time a railroad was considered by the wisest and best men 
to be the one earthly thing needed for the prosperity of a town or city. 

Shortly after the location of the road, Dr. Peck and Mr. Way bought 
a tract of land near where the road crosses Tontogany Creek, in Wood 
county, and after the comijletion ot the road, in the year 1859, laid out 
the village of Tontogany. At this place, in company with his son and 
Mr. F. R. Miller, he built a warehouse for the purchase and shipment 
of grain, and in connection with this opened a store, and soon after 
added a flouring mill. 

That in his multifold bu.siness transactions he should arouse the jeal- 
ousy of others, engaged in the same business, is most natural ; for he was 
not a man to cringe or slacken his energies because his business was 
drawing heavily on the profits of others. This feeling, however, was 
one of less personal enmity than is usual in small villages between those 
engaged in opposition to each other. In business, he struck out boldly, 
but not rashly. He thought much, and never engaged in an enterprise 
until he saw his way clearly, and usually his success did honor to his 
foresight. But, though confident and self-reliant, he seldom engaged 
in any important business transaction without associating others with 
him. And the willingness with which business men and capitalists 
united with him, is the best evidence of the confidence which all had in 
his integrity and ability. In his first mercantile business, he had asso- 
ciated with him W. P. Griswold and George Powers. In his drug store 
and the practice of medicine. Dr. James Robertson. After he built his 
flouring mill on the hydraulic canal, he associated with him Henry P. 
Averill, and in his city lot ^^peculations at Tontogany, Willard V. Way, 



Jifauvtce Valley Pioneer Association. 7 

Esq., was an equal partner. His last partnership was formed with Dr. 
H. A. Hamilton and Mr. l.ew^is M. Hunt, under the firm name of Peck, 
Hamilton & Co. The business of the firm was a hardware store, planing 
mill and lumber yard. Meanwhile he was associated with Dr. Hamil- 
ton, F. K. Miller, and his son, in a banking business, which was carried 
on in the name of the Exchange Bank of Perrysburg. 

Manv men have made more money than Dr. Peck. Hut few as 
much under the circumstances in which he was i)laced, and none put 
in as many days and nights of as hard work and charged as little for it 
as he. We cannot say of him as Phillips said of Napoleon, "He has 
fallen," for he literally wore himself out in the service of his fellow-man. 
And those who survive him will often have occasion to regret the death 
of the generous friend, the charitable neighbor, and the kind-hearted 
physician, who brought health and cheer to their homes in their darkest 
hours, and did it for the love of mankind, and not to rob them by ex- 
tortionate charges, for he rendered services more as a friend than as a 
hireling. 

But these regrets and vain desires cannot recall the departed. 

"More pity that the eagle should be mewed, 
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty." 

Through his long and active business life he never deserted a friend or 
neglected a patient. But few men have been as prodigal of themselves 
as Ur. Peck, He never stopped to consider time, or spare himself, 
while there was hope ot alleviating the suffering of others. In the dark- 
est nights and severst storms he always obeyed the summons of the sick. 
Sometimes, indeed, the storm which he would raise, on being aroused 
from his slumbers, suri)assed the war of the elements without, which 
would so terrify the innocent messenger who had called him, as to make 
him feel that he was the cause of the disease which was appealing to the 
Doctor's skill for relief. But, notwithstanding this, his anxiety to be off 
was not less than that of the trembling messenger to see him depart. 
These flashes were but momentary, and with him seemed to have been 
the forerunner of good humor, as in the seaman's nomenclature a cat's- 
paw after a calm preludes a storm, for no sooner would he be under way 
than the thought of himself sank out of sight, contemplating the suffer- 
ing of the patient, anxiously awaiting his arrival, and if they had far to 
go, the messenger would frequently be more astonished at the sudden 
good humor of the Doctor, and the deep interest manifested by him in 
the case he was going to visit, than he had been a short time before at 
the storm he raised at being called out of bed. 

I feel your patience rc(p.iires I should stop, but the story of the 
Doctor's life would be incomplete, without some account of his noble 



8 Maiimee Valley Pioneer Association. 

work during the cholera, which raged with unexampled fatality at Perrys- 
burg, in the summer of 1854. Between the twentieth of July and the 
middle of August, one hundred and twenty persons died. Many of the 
citizens left, and of those who remained, all who did not die were en- 
gaged in taking care of the sick and burying the dead. Stores were 
closed and business suspended. No one came to the suffering town. 
Even travelers, whose route lay through the town, went round it. The 
reality of death stared every one in the face. .\t first the terror and 
excitement among the citizens was indescribable, and all who could 
sought safety in flight. Some of these indiscreetly advised Dr. Peck to 
go with them, telling him he could not stop the progress of the epi- 
demic, and he was only exposing himself unnecessarily, where his labors 
would be unavailing, and in all human probability he would loose his 
own life without saving others. But amid all the consternation around 
him, he was cool, although he had greater cause of alarm than any, be- 
ing constantly exposed. The door of his drug store was left open night 
and day, and the people helped themselves to such medicines as he 
would direct them to take, as he met them on his rounds I0 visit the 
sick and the dying. At the commencement of the epidemic his part- 
ner, Dr. James Robertson, was among its first victims. This left him 
alone to contend with this incomprehensible destroyer single-handed. 
But he never faltered, nor for a moment quailed before the death deal- 
ing scourge, that was blindly putting forth its unseen power, which killed 
where it touched. Wearied and worn down by constant fatigue, he 
nevertheless rallied his powers, and harried with unfaltering steps to 
each new demand for his aid. 

During those days and nights of terrible anxiety and suffering, he 
was almost constantly on the go, in no instance refusing to obey a call, 
until threatened with inflammation of the brain from loss of sleep. The 
citizens placed a guard around his house at night, to keep away callers, 
and allow him a iitw hours' rest to ])repare him for the labors of the 
coming day. 

" For on his brow the swelling vein 

Throbbed, as if back on his brain 

The hot blood ebbed and flowed again." 

His answer to those who sought to induce him to abandon his duty, 
was : " 1 came to Perrysburg to minister to the sick, and I shall not 
abandon them now when they most need my services." The physician's 
place is at the bedside of the sick and dying, not by the side of roses in 
gardens of pleasure. 

" Let come what will I mean to bear it out." 

****** 

" He is not worthy of the honey comb, 

That shuns the hive because the bees have stingy." 

Kind words never die, and noble acts like virtue bring their own re- 



Mauniec Valley Pioneer Association. g 

ward. I'he year following the above recited facts, was the year for the 
election of Representatives to the State Legislature, and Dr. Peck was 
elected by a large majority to represent the counties of Wood and Ot- 
tawa, and was re-elected two years after and served a second term. He 
entered the halls of legislation, without previous training, and made a 
good representative, again giving proof that common sense and ])rac- 
tical knowledge are better guides than theory. 

At the election in the Spring of A. D. 1869, he was elected t<. Con- 
gress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. T. H. Hoag, who 
had beaten Mr. Ashley the fall before He was re-elected in the fall 
of the next year for the full term. At both of these elections, the citi- 
zens of Perrysburg testified to the high esteem in which they held him, 
by largely ignoring party, and casting almost the entire vote for him. 
His out-spoken frankness, which is a noble quality and should be pos- 
sessed by every office-holder in the land, did not, however, commend 
him to the politicians, and while he had the sympathy of the people, he 
had not the support of those who make politics a trade. 

It is the influence of a man while living, that moulds the fashion of 
his times, and society does not have to wait until after his death, and 
read his history, to get his impress and its destinies. The history of the 
world is what mankind has made it. A man's influence begins with his 
life, but does not end with his death, but prolongs itself, like the vibra- 
tions of a chord, which continue long after the power which put it in mo- 
tion has been removed. So the influence of a great mind like the hid- 
den forces of nature is always at work on the destinies of the world, and 
though unseen is ever manifest in the prominent developments of so- 
ciety. And as first impressions are the most lasting, it is fortunate for 
the Maumee Valley that its early settlers brought with them to their 
homes in the wilderness, noble sentiments, which will serve as founda- 
tions from which must ever spring high notions of moral grandeur, to 
guide the rising generation to a more abiding faith in the unselfishness 
of mankind. 

I fear I have done the Doctor's memory injustice, by confining my- 
self too exclusively to his business life, and not opening the door to his 
domestic circle. He loved his home and spent much money in making 
it pleasant and enjoyable; and some of his sweetest moments, were those 
he snatched from business to spend with his family. 

The second winter he spent in Washington, he was anxious his wife 
should be with him. But she had been an invalid for some time, and 
felt she would be more comfortable at home. He insisted, and she ac- 
companied him. She died shortly after her arrival in the city. Her 
death was sudden and unexpected. This was a severe shock to him, 
one from which he never entirely recovered. A tie was severed which 



lO ]\Iaiimcc Valley Pionee7' Association. 

earth could not reunite. A wound inflicted that only heaven could heal. 
It is true the Doctor came home and appeared at his place of business, 
but the strong man had lost his energy, the will power, too, was gone, 
and Dr. Peck's tottering footsteps went steadily to the grave, where 
freed from earth's sorrows he rests in peace. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Cook's address, Rev. Robert McCune read 
the following memorial of the late 

RUSSEL C. THOMPSON. 

Russel C. Thompson was born in Stonington, Connecticut, Sept. 3, 
1809, and died in the city of Philadelphia, Sept. 27, 1876. He was one 
of a family of ten children, and for a time before his death was the sur- 
vivor of the family. 

His youth and early manhood were spent in the State of New York. 
Thrown upon his own exertions, almost from childhood, his opportuni- 
ties for obtaining an education were limited. A portion of them, how- 
ever, were well improved. He was often heard to say that the chief 
part of the literary education he received, was attained in a single term 
at a country school. His teacher, discerning the gifts and promise of a 
hitherto neglected pupil, encouraged him to unusual application to his 
studies, gave him help outside of school hours, and otherwise aided and 
stimulated his exertions, so that he was able ever after to fill creditably 
every position of responsibility to which he was called. Bred to agri- 
cultural pursuits, he sought no other calling, except occasionally in win- 
ter to teach school, when the work of the farm did not recjuire his atten- 
tion. His active mind always seemed to require constant and ever ex- 
citing occupation, and no months of the year were ever alhnved to pass 
unemployed. In 1831 he was married to Miss Matilda Clendenin, in 
the State of New York, where he resided till 1844, when he emigrated 
to Adrian, Michigan, where he remained for two years, teaching school 
in the winter season, and farming during the rest of the year. In 1846 
he became a resident of Fulton County, and soon after removed from 
thence to the farm in Sylvania, Lucas County, which was his homestead 
until his death. In 1 850 he was appointed Superintendent of the County 
Infirmary, and occupied that position for a period of ten years. For 
such a position he possessed excellent qualifications. His genial, ben- 
evolent nature gave hini the kindly disposition needed by a man in, 
charge of the poor and unfortunate. On princi])le he regarded every 
man as a fellow, whose rights were to be sacredly respected, his mis- 
fortunes pitied, and even his faults and vices covered with the extenua- 
tions of charity. In this respect he certainly never had a superior. 



Maiivicc J 'alley Pioneer Association. i r 

Poverty never reduced a human being in his estimation. With him the 
sentiment of the Scottish poet obtained full recognition : 

Is there, for honest poverty, 

That hangs his head, and a' that ! 
'I'he coward slave, we pass him by. 

We dare be poor for a' that ! 
For a' that, and a' that I 

Our toils obscure, and a' that ; 
The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 

The man's the gold, for a' that ! 

What though on homely fare we dine, 

Wear hoddin gray, and a' that ; 
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 

A man's a man for a' that I 
For a' that, and a' that ; 
The honest man, though e'er so poor, 

Is king of men for a' that I 

But the subject of this memoir possessed other cjualities which con- 
tributed greatly to 

HIS ACKNOWLEDGED SUCCESS. 

An excellent and energetic farmer, he carried on the affairs of the In- 
firmary Farm successfully, and by the firmness of his discipline, and the 
system he introduced into the institution, as much as by the kindness 
of his heart, his administration was made successful. 

While Superintendent of the Infirmary, Mr. Thompson suffered the 
loss of the wife of his youth by death. In 1858 he married Mrs. Jean- 
nette Knapp, who survives to mourn his loss, and cherish affectionate 
memories of his excellencies as a husband and head of a household. 

In 1S60 he returned to his farm in Sylvania, where he resided as 
long as he lived. Here he was soon chosen as Justice of the Peace, by 
his neighbors and by re-elections, in which there was little if any oppo- 
sition, held the office until his death. His chief work as a magistrate 
was to persuade his neighbors to amicable settlements without invoking 
the aid of the law. As peace-maker he will long be borne in respectful 
memory by many of his neighbors. 

In 1871 he was elected to represent the County of Lucas in the Ohio 
House of Representatives. Here his ability and efficiency became more 
widely known and more highly appreciated. Even those who knew him 
well were surj^rised to see him so soon recognized by the chief men 
of the State, as a man of power and influence. In a few davs after he 
arrived at the State Capital, he took i)art in a debate in the annual 
meeting of the State Agricultural Society, in which his voice decided 
the question in hand. 

One of the most eloquent and effective orators of our State had left 
the floor after making, what most hearers supposed would i)rove to bcv 



12 Maunice Valley Pio7iecr Association. 

a decisive argument in favor of permanently locating the annual Fair at 
Columbus. 'Ihe hitherto unknown farmer representative of Lucas fol- 
lowed in a brief, clear and practical statement of the benefits to be de- 
rived by practical agriculturalists from holding the State Fair in differ- 
ent localities. The eloquence of the lawyer orator, whatever its merit, 
for once gave way to the earnest practical plea of the farmer. The 
friends of the policy advocated by Mr. Thompson were roused from 
their discouragement and apprehension of defeat by their newly-found 
advocate, and from that day forward, when a measure pending in the 
House needed strengthening, especially one connected with agriculture 
and its interests, it friends were wont to implore "P'ather Thompson," 
as he was tenderly and familiarly called, to speak in its behalf, and many 
an imperilled bill did he bear over the critical noint in its struggle for 
life and victory during his five years legislative service. 

Mr. Thompson owed much of his success as a legislator to his 
strongly social and symi)athetic nature. Capable of inspiring 
friendship, he heartily appreciated it. It gave him pleasure to 
serve his friends, and at the same time no man was less dis- 
posed to ask help or service from others. As a legislator he was dili- 
gent and conscientious, yet he seldom threw any bitterness into the 
opposition he felt obliged to offer to measures introduced by others. 
He preferred to advocate measures he was in favor of, rather than to 
oppose violently those he felt called upon to oppose. His frequent 
help heartily rendered to others, won him friends in return. It was not 
uncommon to see men of both parties coming to the rescue of " Father 
Thompson's" bill, for his sake. Staunchly loyal to his party and his 
political convictions, he always met his political opponents with the 
outstretched hand and cheerful greeting, which seemed always to make 
his presence a benediction in any company. He cherished no animosi- 
ties, and wreaked no revenges. Hence the large and valuable influence 
he was able to exert on behalf of the interests he so faithfully and effi- 
ciently represented. 

For four years he acted as President of the Lucas County Agricultu- 
ral Society, and these years were filled with progress and prosperity. 
What he did, he did with ail his might. Day and night he gave thought 
and care for the Society's interests. He had a laudable pride in his own 
calling. On his own farm he practiced the most approved methods of 
work and tillage. He tolerated no inferior stock. From far and near 
he sought the best breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and other stock. He 
tried to inspire like views and purposes in others. The work of the 
Society was a delight to him. 

From early manhood he was a member of the Congregational Church, 
and for the cause of religion he ever bore a hearty and earnest interest. 



Mauniee I 'alley Pioneer Association. \ 3 

Every good and philanthropic work found in him an ardent helper to 
the extent of his ability. For many years he was an active and hon- 
ored member of the Masonic order, which honored his burial with its 
most impressive memorial services. 

He was also in connection with the order of I'atrons of Husbandry, 
and a leading officer therein. 

For several of his later years he was admonished by painful, thou;^h 
not prostrating disease, of the approach of death, and often sjjoke of it 
with composure and cheerfulness. But it came sooner and more sud- 
denly than he or any of his friends expected. While visiting the great 
National Centennial Exposition, the excitement of travel, the fatigue 
caused, and the exertion required to look over the wonders of the Exhi- 
bition, proved too much for his strength, and suddenly, in a strange 
city, attended only by his faithful wife, he met the final summons which 
compelled him to leave the activities in which he so much delighted, 
and in which his useful labors were so highly prized by his co-laborers 
and associates. Well may the Pioneers of the Mauniee Valley enshrine 
his virtues m their memory, and si)eak of him to their children as one of 
the most loving, generous, active and useful of the men whose intelli- 
gence, labor and public spirit have brought us to our present stage of 
moral, social and material advancement. 

OTHER MEMORIALS. 
Mr. Mavor Brigham then read a sketch of the life and services of 

JHOMAS CORLET'J-, 

< )ne of the early settlers in the Valley, who died since the 1 1st meeting 
of the Association. 

Thomas Corlett was born at Parish Kirk Andres, in the Isle of Man, 
Dec. 25, 1803, where he lived until he was about 24 years of age. We 
know very little of his early history, except that he was trained to habits 
of honest industry and economy. He was confirmed as a member of 
the Episcopal Church, which was the established church in his native 
place. He emigrated to the I'nited States in the year 1827, landing at 
Boston, Mass., and in search of some satisfactory emi)loyment, he jour- 
neyed on foot to Albany, X. ^'., at which place and vicinity he remained 
some three years; and from thence he removed to Syracuse, N. V., 
where he bound himself to Messrs. Booth iV Cheeney. as an apprentice 
to learn the trade of a mason. During the three years of his apprentice- 
ship, he faithfully fulfilled his obligations to his employers, and acquired 
a good practical knowledge of his trade. While at work learning his 
trade, he received very small wages, yet at the close of his term of ap- 
prenticeshi]). he had tjuite a handsome sum of money to his credit on 



14 Alaiiniec I'allcx Pioneer A ssociatio::. 

the books of his employers, while his fellow apprentices came out in 
debt. He was married in 1833 to Miss Ann W'oodwip, of Syracuse, and 
in August, 1834, removed to Toledo, O., where he engaged in business 
at his trade. I became acquainted with him in the early part of the 
summer of 1835, and in the fall of that year employed him to do the 
brick work and plastering for a house which I was then erecting, on the 
corner of Erie and Elm streets, in this city. As a contractor and 
mechanic, he was honest, industrious and successful. He continued 
his business in this city until about the year i860, and accumulated a 
competence in this world's goods. For several years after this date, he 
was employed as a Superintending inspector upon the public w'orks of 
this city. In March, 1872, he removed on to a farm which he had pur- 
chased, at \'ienn?, Monroe County, Mich., where he resided until the 
time of his death. 

On the 7th of April, 1876, he was called, in the Providence of God, to 
pass through the most trying ordeal of his life, in the death of his be- 
loved wife. For 43 years she had been his constant and trusted com- 
panion, the sharer of all his joys and sorrows, the kind, faithful and 
affectionate mother of his and her children. She had been all these years 
the light and joy of his heart, the guiding star of his household, and I 
am sure that those who knew her best, can best appreciate the magni- 
tude of his loss. Up to this time Mr. Corlett had enjoyed a uniform and 
comfortable measure of health, but this bereavement seemed too much 
for his endurance. Under it he broke down completely, both ment- 
ally and physically, so much so that he was unable to attend the funeral 
of his wife, which was held at the Westminster Church, in this city. Im- 
mediately after the death of his wife, he expressed the conviction that 
he would not recover from the terrible shock, but that he would very 
soon follow her to the grave. And while his friends and physician were 
unable to discover the existence of any marked tyi)e of disease, which 
might threaten a fatal termination, yet he continued to sink, until the 
14th day of April, 1876, when he ({uietly passed away; and in just one 
short week from the time when the funeral obsec^uies of his wife were at- 
tended at Westminster Church. His numerous friends were again con- 
vened at the same place, to pay their last respects to all that remained 
of Thomas Corlett. 

Mr. Corlett, during his long residence in this city, was a regular at- 
tendant at the M. E. Church, but, I believe, was never a member of 
that church. He was a man of integrity, honest and upright in all his 
dealings, an excellent neighbor, and always ready to lend the hand of 
assistance to those in want of help. 

Three sons, one daughter, and an adopted daughter, survive to 
mourn this double bereavement. Thus, my friends and fellow Pioneers^ 



Maiimee Wxllcy Pioneer Association. 15 

has another ofour number passed from earth, and I know that you will 
not fail to cherish the memory of one who was alike — a faithful husband, 
a kind father, a true friend, an esteemed neighbor, and a true and loyal 
citizen. 

May he rest in peace ; 
When the weary ones we love 
Enter on that rest above. 
When the words of love and cheer 
Fall no longer on our ear ; 
Hush, be every murmur dumb, 
It isonl> — " Till He Come." 

The following obituary of Mrs. Mary S. Hunt, who died on Christ- 
mas morning, 1876, at the age of 81, was then read by the Secretary of 
the Association : 

MK?. M.ARV SOPHIA HUXI'. 

To have known Mrs. Hunt through any part of her four-score years 
was to learn the loveliness of every yood attribute of womanly character. 
No remarkable event marked the long current of her life; no accident 
of fortune lifted her into unusual j)rominence; yet wherever and among 
whomever she has lived or moved there has gone from her presence an 
aroma of goodness and grace of character which has made her presence 
felt among all classes as a breath from a better world. So sympathetic, 
so gentle in manner and word and voice, so practical, sensible and self- 
denying in work and life, she has lived an embodiment ot all that imagi- 
nation pictures of goodness in woman ; and at last, crowned with years, 
has rounded out a life filled with duties done, and sweet and unob- 
trusive charities. The white snow and merry hearts of Christmas time 
are typical of the light and joy of welcome to her home in Heaven by 
the Lord she has loved and served. 

Mrs. Hunt was born in West Virginia, near the banks of the Ohio 
River, seven miles below Marietta, at the home of her father, Dr. Joseph 
Spencer. Her mother was a Selden, and both father and mother were 
from Connecticut. The latter was nearly related to the mother of Chief 
Justice Waite. Her grandfather Spencer was a General in the Army 
of the Revolution. At the age of fourteen Miss Spencer was invited to 
a home with her oldest sister, .Mrs. Cass, wife of General Lewis Cass, 
then Governor of the Northwest Territory, whose home was in Detroit, 
the Capitol of the Territory. There she completed her education, and 
moved in the choicest circle of the French, English and American eliti 
of that old city. How much the magnetism of her symiiathetic heart 
was heightened by the refmements of manners imbred by her social sur- 
roundings we cannot know; but many who have known her for half a 
century, are quick to believe that nature so gifted her with a treasure 



I 6 Matimce Valley Pioncei^ Association, 

of amenities that she has always been more blessed in giving, than in 
receiving from society. 

In May, 1822, she was married, at the residence of General Cass, in 
Detroit, to Col. John E. Hunt, already at that time a six years resident 
of Maumee. She immediately accompanied her husband on horseback 
to his home in Maumee, making the journey in three stages ; the first 
to Trenton, where they put up at the farm inn of Mr. Truax. The next 
day they arrived in Monroe, and were there entertained by Col. John- 
son. The third day, facing a driving rain, and each carrying an um- 
brella, they arrived at Maumee River. Mrs. Hunt was delighted with 
the "scenery at Maumee, and at once loved her new home, and won the 
love of every one within the circle of her accjuaintance. They com- 
menced housekeeping in a log house, but soon afterward moved into 
their pleasant home on the bank of the river in old Maumee, where 
seven children were born to them — five daughters and two sons. Their 
house was not simply the abode of a most courtly gentleman and a 
Christian woman, but it was a center of hospitality to rich and poor alike, 
and of a little social world more cultured than is usually supposed to 
exist in a pioneer settlement. Here the oldest daughter, Sophia, was 
married in 1843, to Denison B. Smith; in 1844 her second daughter, 
Eliza, was married to E. A. Brush, of Detroit; and in 1849, the third 
daughter, Isabella, to Edward H. Hunter, of Maumee. In 1853, Gen. 
Hunt removed his home to Toledo, and since that time the family home 
on Jefferson Street, has been blessed by the presence of "the loveliest 
little grandmother that ever lived," who now, alas, sleeps in death. 

Wealth and aristocratic position never warped the good fibre of Mrs. 
Hunt's Christian character. Early associated with the Methodist 
Church, and a life long member, her heart overflowed with desire to do 
good through every possible channel. During her long residence at 
Maumee, the family had two pews in church, Mrs. Hunt sitting or stand- 
ing at the head of one and the General at the other. Her eyes were 
always alert to see if some poor man, woman or child, were without a 
place, and the inviting welcome of her eyes to come to her was ex- 
pressed without language, but with a clearness and warmth of welcome 
that no one who felt it could ever forget. Her Christian earnestness 
was of that rare type which, like a deep but noiseless fountain, overflowed 
unconsciously with blessings to all around. She was deeply religious, 
yet yearned to do good in practical ways to all and with all alike. The 
warmth of interest she exhibited in the well-being of friends and ac- 
(juaintances, the cordiality of her greetings to all, and the quiet self- 
forgetting earnestness of her daily eflorts to do something for those 
around her and to seek the needy and afflicted to do for them — all 
these traits, exhibited in their full activity almost to her dying day, made 



Maiimce Valley Pioneer Association. i 7 

up the souvenirs of a character " whose like we ne'er shall see again." 
True of her beyond ail others : 

None knew her but to love her, 
None named her but to praise. 

The old and middle aged who have known her long, will feel that 
society which has warmed by her presence for half a century, has a void 
at its heart which will never be filled during their lives. The venerable 
consort bowed by age and grief, the loving family so long and pleasantly 
grouped around the noble pair — all may wee]) a loss for which there is 
no repair in this world ; but with what proud consolation that they weep 
for such a woman, and that they have been privileged to be blessed by 
her life and example. 

Francis Hollenbeck, Esc;., of I'errysburg, then read a personal sketch 
of Jonathan Perrin, late of that place : 

JONATHAN I'ERRIN. 

It is due to the memory of Mr. Perrin to say that it was late before 
a request was made for a sketch of his life and character. Only time 
sufficient intervened to collect a few incidents of his history. His life, 
so far as I can learn, was not marked by any unusual or startling events ; 
but, like the placid, tranquil stream, flowed smoothly on from its begin- 
ning to its close. But, if the even, uniform current of his being was un- 
broken by cataracts and whirlpools which might have excited feelings 
of wonder and astonishment, yet its borders were adorned with flowers 
and fruits which awakened emotions of contentment and satisfaction. 

Mr. Perrin was born on a farm in Bedford County, Penn., July 11, 
1805. His parents came to Ohio when he was ten years old, leaving him 
behind in the care of an uncle. A year afterwards, a neighbor of his uncle 
removing to the west, was paid $15.00 to bring the boy to his parents, 
who had settled in that part of Fairfield County, now Franklin, and not 
far from Columbus. The boy walked the entire distance, carrying a 
shot gun and driving the neighbor's cattle. He frequently spoke, in a 
pleasajit manner, of paying $15.00 for the privilege of working his way 
on foot from Pennsylvania into Ohio. 

It was not long after Jonathan arrived at his father's house that the 
latter died, leaving a widow and eight children, five of the children be- 
ing younger than Jonathan, His mother being thus situated ; subject 
to all the privations and hardships of pioneer life, with a large family of 
helpless children demanding her care and protection ; this boy stepped 
forward, assumed the position of male head of the family, and devoted 
himself to the aid of his mother in rearing those children. And right 
well did he discharge the duties he had voluntarily assumed as evi- 
denced by the gratitude uniformly expressed by his brothers and sisters 



i8 Maiunee Valley Pioneer Association. 

in after life. He kept the family together until he arrived at the age of 
nineteen years, when his mother died and the home circle was broken. 
Generally, those men are denominated heroes, who are most successful 
in destroying human life and producing the- greatest sum of misery to 
the greatest number, but would it not be more consonant with our no- 
tions of Christian civilization, to regard those as truly great, who, for- 
getting self, consecrate their energies to the promotion of others' wel- 
fare .' Of the great number whose names are found in the history of our 
country and upon its official rolls, how many of them possessed the gen- 
uine nobleness of soul that would have led them to sacrifice their own 
ease, comfort and wordly success, for the purpose of keeping together 
and rearing to usefulness and respectability, a family of helpless chil- 
dren, as did the boy, Jonathan Perrin.'' From that time until his'death, 
he received, as he deserved, their blessings. It was an incident in his 
life upoti which he could reflect with complacency, for " if a man has a 
right to be proud of anything, 'tis a good action, done, as it ought to 
be, without any cold suggestions of interest lurking at the bottom of 
it." 

After the family was broken up, Mr. Perrin went to Delaware, in 
this State, and there learned the trade of carpenter and joiner from 
General Hinton, who afterwards became widely known throughout the 
Northwest as the General Superintendent of the numerous stage lines 
of Niel, Moore & Co. From Delaware he came to Lower Sandusky, 
now Fremont, and remained there only long enough to erect one dwel- 
ling. The late Sardis Birchard became acquainted with him while 
there, and discovered elements of character in him which made Mr. 
Birchard particularly anxious to have the young carpenter remain with 
him ; but Elijah Huntington, who had married a cousin of Mr. Perrin, 
and was settled at Perrysburg, persuaded him to come to the latter 
place. He came in J827, and worked at his trade there until 1837 
or '38. 

On April 28th, 1830, he was married by Elijah Huntington, J. P., to 
Amelia Wilkison, at the then hamlet or village of Orleans, situated on 
the flat adjoining Fort Meigs. The union proved to be fortunate, as 
their journey together through more than forty-six years, subject to the 
privations, sickness and sufferings incident to the early days of the 
Maumee Valley, was yet marked by an unusual degree of peace, qui- 
etude and happiness. I am gratified to be able to state that we have 
the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Perrin here to-day. 

Mr. Perrin had about concluded to quit working at his trade and go 
upon a farm, on account of hemorrhage of the lungs, when his old boss, 
General Hinton, came along and engaged him as Superintendent of the 
stage line from Lower Sandusky to Detroit. Here the old boss and his 



Alaumec Valley Pio?iccr Association. 19 

apprentice again came together in close business relationship, and this 
employment of the latter by the former indicates the confidence which 
the be irdless boy had inspired in his senior. It was a striking proof of 
his youthful worth and faithfulness. That confidence was not misplaced, 
nor ev'er impaired. It was the duty of Mr. P. in his new position to buy 
the necessary slock and feed for it; to hire men and to discharge them 
whenever he thought the interest of the company demanded their dis- 
missal ; to pay employes, attend to all rejjairs, collect dues from post- 
masters, &C., ovc. Such trust and reliance had the company in his in- 
tegrity and ability, that when it determined to extend its business into 
the State cf Missouri, it sent him there to organize the new lines and 
buy the necessary stock, he being an excellent judge of horses. He re- 
mained there nine months, and was so incessantly engaged that he could 
not visit his family in all that time. He continued in the service of the 
company until it ceased to do business in this region. During that time 
large sums of money passed through his hands, and his accounts were 
always correct and satisfiictory. 

On the completion of the Wabash & Erie Canal, he engaged in 
transpoitation thereon, owning a small " Line of Boats." He pursued 
this business a few years with a comfortable degree of success, but be- 
came dissatisfied with it by reason of its inevitable associations. He 
supposed that if a man who had engaged in business on the canal con- 
ducted himself as a gentleman, he would always be treated as a gentle- 
man, and would find no difficulty in employing only such as possessed 
gentlemanly instincts and deportment. Experience soon undeceived 
him, as the exigencies of the business brought him daily and hourly in 
unavcidable contact with the ignorant, coarse, drunken, dissolute and 
dishonest. These associations were inexpressibly repulsive to him — he 
sold out and retired. 

An incident occurred while he was on the canal which gives an in- 
sight to the true character of the man. Arriving at Fort Wayne on one 
of his trips he discovered he had an hundred dollars for which he could 
not account. He knew it did not belong to him, but whence it came he 
could not tell. When he reached Toledo he related the circumstances 
to the forwarder with whom he was doing business. The latter advised 
him that inasmuch as he did not know from whom he received it, to say 
nothing more about it and appropriate it to his own use. Mr. Perrin 
answered, in that quiet, decisive manner peculiar 10 him, " No, it is not 
mine; I have no right to use it; it was doubtless given to me through 
mistake, and I must find the owner." He did find him, and returned the 
money. Would his conscience have been as easy ; would he have slept as 
well at night, and would he have had so good an opinion of himself had 



20 Maiunee Valley Pioneer Association. 

he foUowtd his friend's advice? Not for a moment did he hesitate or 
listen to the tempter ; his native inborn integrity revolted at the un- 
worthy suggestion. The past philosopher has said : 

" All honest man is the noblest work of Ood." 

If this be true, then was the heart of Mr. Perrin a patent of the highest 
nobility. 

After leaving the canal, he was emi)loyed as a Superintendent of 
construction in the building of the Mad River tS; Lake Erie Railroad. 
He occupied that position some two or three years, and until the com- 
pletion of the Road, 

Afterwards he took a heavy job of construction on the Dayton & 
Michigan Road. This did not prove to be a profitable enterprise, as 
he lost several hur^dred dollars by it. The completion of that job ended 
his connection in every respect with the public works of the State. From 
thence forth he devoted his attention to the pursuits of agriculture. He 
died May 21, 1876, aged 70 years, 9 months and 21 days, and in very 
comfortable pecuniary circumstances. 

Mr. Perrin was an industrious man, never indulging in idleness when 
anything useful could be found to do. His whole life was that of an 
active business man, and all his transactions were characterized by a 
stern and rigid probity, a probity which rendered him 50 sensitive to the 
approaches of dishonesty that he shrank instinctively from any proposi- 
tion, tinged however faintly, with suggestions of (juestionable imjjort. 

He was prudent, economical and eminently correct in all his habits. 
He possessed a kind and friendly disposition ; was charitable, unassum- 
ing in his deportment, firm in his convictions, and commanded the un- 
feigned respect of all who knew him. 

His younger life was passed at a time and under circumstances un- 
favorable to the acquisition of even a common school education. 
Throughout all his business life, he keenly felt and fully appreciated 
the inconveniences arising from that misfortune. This made him an 
ardent friend of popular education, and the schools of Perrysburg ever 
received his warm and steadfast support. He was desirous that his chil- 
dren should not suffer from the same embarrassment, and he took great 
interest in securing to each of them a good, substantial education. 

He was a kind, attentive and affectionate husband and father,- and 
his solicitude for the welfare of his children never suffered them while 
under his control to wander from the paths of rectitude and propriety. 
He had in them a justifiable father's pride, and this rendered him quick 
to discern and correct whatever might tend to their injury. 'I'his in- 
terest in their happiness and well-being was fully reciprocated by every 
member of his family, and each and all of them not only respected and 



MauDicc Willcy Pioticcr Association. 21 

luved, Init had full confidence and truit in him. and < herish his memory 
with grateful tenderness. 

He exjjerienced his greatest happiness at his own fireside in the so- 
( iety of his wife and children, and this enjoyment lifted him above the 
allurements of petty ofifice and suppressed every desire for political no- 
toriety. In this he was truly fortunate, as no greater calamity ordinarily 
befalls men than the catching of " office itch." 

All who were intimately accjuainted with Mr. Pcrrin uill concur with 
me in saying, ''He was a good man." And if 

" Only the good arc greai," 

then was he the equal of any other. Measured by that which serves to 
elevate and ennoble mankind, private life furnishes more instances of 
real greatness than public station. The world is better by reason of 
our friend having lived in it. Through life he acted well his ]:)art, left 
not a sting of bitterness in any bosom, and "came to his grave in full 
age. like as a shock of corn cometh in, in its season." Thus, 

■' < )nf' by one the stars go out." 

Then followed the Annual Address by Hon. Emery I). Potter: 

Mr. President^ and Af embers of the Afaumee Valley Pioneer Association : 

We have listened to the obituaries of five of our members, and the 
solemnity with which we have listened, testifies our grief that we shall 
see their faces no more at our gatherings. One after another they are 
dropping away, and it will not be long before the last of the I'ioneers of 
the Maumee will have closed his eyes upon the scenes of his toil and 
liis sacrifices. 

It falls to my lot on this occasion, however, to deal with the ma- 
terial facts, constituting the foundation on which their labors were 
based, and the results accomplished by their energy and perseverance. 
-And to lay the foundation of what I am about to say, it seems necessary, 
although an oft told tale, to give some account of the land we now in- 
habit, before the white man became the possessor of the soil. I once 
knew a man who was wonderfully given to story telling. He never had 
but one story to tell, and when a party of gentlemen were assembled 
where he was, he v.ould enquire if there was any one in the crowd who 
had never heard his story of "The lightning rod man;" and if there 
were one present who had never heard it, he would occupy the atten- 
tion of the ))arty in relating it. although there might be twenty others in 
the party who had heard it repeated a hundred times. And now, 
although what I am about to repeat may have been often heard by most 
of vou, and the facts have passed into history; still, if there be one 



2 2 Ma7i))ice Willey Pioneer Association. 

here to wliom the tale is new to his ear, I address myseh', leaving the 
great majority of this audience to listen with what patience they can. 

The history of the Indian treaties by which the title to the lands in 
the Maumee Valley was acquired by the United States, seems pertinent 
on this occasion, to a correct understanding of the trials endured in 
opening the country to civilization and Christianity, and bringing it to 
its present condition. 

Prior to the 21st of January, 1785, the valleys of ihe Maumee River 
and its tributaries, were owned and held by the Wyandotte, Seneca, 
Delaware, Shawnee, Pottovvattomie, Ottawa, Chippaway, and Miami 
tribes of Indians. That portion from Defiance to the mouth of the 
Maumee, was occupied by the Ottawas. The Shawnees occupied Up- 
per Sandusky, with their chief town at Wapakonetta, and the Miamis the 
upper Maumee, their central village being at what is now the city of 
Fort Wayne. 

At the date above named, a treaty was made between the United 
States and several of the tribes at Fort Mcintosh, now Beaver, Pennsyl- 
vania, by which the boundary between the tribes and the United States, 
was agreed upon. This treaty was finally ratified and affirmed by the 
Indians at Fort Harmar, on the 9th of January, 1789. Several trading 
posts were reserved, however, to the United States. One of six miles 
square at the mouth of the Maumee ; six miles square on the branch of 
the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio River; six miles square on the 
lake at Sandusky, and ten miles square on each side of the lower rapids 
of the Sandusky at Fremont. These reservations, or posts, were to be 
under the immediate government of the United States. 

Very little attention was paid to the treaty by the Indians. Under 
British influence they made constant encroachments upon the territory 
of the United States; and in 1790 a war was commenced with them 
which lasted till 1795. In 1793, Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph, 
and Timothy Pickering, were appointed by the United States commis- 
sioners to treat with the Indians for peace, and the establishment of the 
boundary previou.sly agreed on by the treaty of Fort Harmar. 

The objects of this commission were frustrated through the influence 
of the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Capt. Brant. On 
the failure to negotiate the treaty contemplated by the com.Tiission, 
General Anthony Wayne was ordered to the Indian country, where, on 
the 20th of August, 1794, at the rapids of the Maumee, near Roche De- 
beuf, between Maumee and Waterville, the celebrated battle was fought 
which terminated the Indian war. As this battle has become a part of 
the history of the United States, our limits will not allow us to go into 
its details. Wayne's victory, however, with nine hundred United States 



Mauincc Valley Pioneer Associdtiou. 2 ; 

troops, against two thousand Indians and their allies, was complete, and 
put an end to the Indian troubles for the time being, on the frontier. 
Of the Americans thirty-nine were killed, including two commissioned 
officers, and one hundred wounded, including seven commissioned offi- 
cers. The tribes of Indians engaged in this battle were the Delawares, 
Miamis, Shawnees, Ottawas, and Wyandottes. The Indians in this cam- 
paign were supplied from the British stores at the mouth of Swan Creek, 
on the Maumee, where Toledo now stands. 

On the 3rd day of August, 1795, another treaty w-as concluded at 
Greenville, now the county seat of Darke County, substantially affirming 
the treaties of 1785 and 1789. The Indians ceeded to the United 
States six miles square near Loramie's store ; two miles square at the 
head of navigation of the St. Mary's, near dirty 's town, now St. Mary's? 
in Auglaize County; six miles square at the head of navigation of the 
Auglaize River; six miles square at the confluence of the Auglaize and 
Maumee at Defiance; six miles square at the confluence of the St. 
Mary's and St. Joseph's, at Fort Wayne; twelve miles square at the foot 
of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie (Maumee), and six miles square 
at the mouth of the Maumee, where it enters Lake Erie. 

About this time Gabriel Godfrey and John Baptiste Beaugrand, es- 
tablished a trading post at the foot of the rapids, and were the first white 
persons known to have settled in the Maumee Valley. Previous to the 
treaty of 1795, the Ihitish had constructed Fort Miami, at the foot of 
the rapids of the Miami, but finally evacuated it in 1796. British influ- 
ence over the Indians from that time sensibly diminished, until the 
breaking out of the war of 1812. A short time after the evacuation of 
Fort Miami by the British, the United States erected a stockade fort at 
the mouth of Swan Creek, near the foot of Monroe street, and where 
Fort Industry Block now stands, called Fort Industry. It was garri- 
soned under the command of Lieut. McRae. On grading Summit 
street in 1836, between Monroe and Jefferson streets, an Indian bury- 
ing ground^was opened, many bones and Indian trinkets and ornaments 
were found. Numerous treaties were subsequently made with the Ot- 
tawas, Shawnees, and Wyandottes, by which their title to all the Reser- 
vations in Ohio was extinguished. 

On the 24th of November, 1808, a treaty was concluded at Browns- 
town, by which the L'nited States acquired the title to a roadway 120 
feet wide, from the western line of the Connecticut Western Reserve, to 
the rapids of the Maumee, through the Black Swamp, and all the lands 
for one mile in width on each side of the road, for the purpose of inviting 
settlement along the line. This grant extended from P.ellevue to Mau- 
mee, a distance of some 45 miles, and was for manv years a thoroughfare 



24 Ma2iinee Valley Pio^ieer Association. 

from the East to the Northwest. On the i8th day of February, 1833 
at a treaty held at Maumee, the Ottawas ceded to the United States all 
the remaining lands held by them in Ohio, thus extinguishing their last 
claim to the soil, except a few reservations to individuals of the tribe, 
and the last of the Ottawas left for their future home west of the Mis- 
sissippi. 

The first Civil Government we have any account of over any portion 
of the Maumee Valley, was under the organization of the county of 
Wayne, with the seat of justice at Detroit, under the proclamation of the 
Governor of the "Territory northwest of the River Ohio." It may in- 
terest some of our young friends to know the boundary of this new 
county. "Beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on Lake Erie, 
and with said river to the portage between it and the Tuscarawas 
branch of the Muskingum, thence down said branch to the forks at the 
carrying place above Port Lawrence, thence by a west line to the east- 
ern boundary of Hamilton County, which is a due north line from the 
lower Shawnee town on the Sciota, thence by a line west, northerly by 
the southern part of the portage, between the Miamis of Ohio and St. 
Mary's rivers ; thence by a line west northerly to the most southern 
bend of Lake Michigan ; thence along the shores of the same to the 
northwest part thereof; thence due north to the Territorial boundary in 
Lake Superior; and thence with the Territorial boimdary to the place 
of beginning. Any one by looking at the map will readily comprehend 
the extent of this county. 

In 1802 Ohio was organized as a State government, and on the 
24th of March, 1803, the counties of Green and Montgomery were or- 
ganized, extending to the north line of the State. What is now Lucas 
was then included in Green county. On the 20th of February, 1805, the 
county of Champaign was formed of the north part of Green, and the 
county seat established at Springfield, now the county seat of Clark 
county. In this yar a port of entry was established at Maumee, and 
Capt. Bond was the first collector. 

The first township organized was in 1816, when the commissioners 
of Champaign county established the township of Waynesfield, and or- 
dered an election for township officers to be held at the house of Aurora 
Spafford. Twenty-five electors appeared, and an election was accord- 
ingly held. On the 30th of September, 1817, the county of Logan, with 
the county seat at Bellefontaine, was formed. This included the twelve 
mile Reserve at the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, cover- 
ing the ground where Toledo is located. 

On tlie 20th of February, 1820, the counties of Van \\'ert, Mercer, 
Putnam, Allen, Hardin, Hancock, Crawford, Marion, Seneca, Sandusky, 



Alatiiuee Valley Pioneer Assot/ahon. 25 

Wood, Henry, Paulding, and Williams, were established. Wood county, 
including the twelve mile square Eeserve, county seat at Maumee. On 
the 3rd day of May, 1820, the first court was held in the Maumee Val- 
ley, Judge George Tod, father of the late Governor David Tod, ]jre- 
siding. The associate judges were Horatio Conant (now living), Sam- 
uel Vance and Peter G. Oliver. 

About the yeari82i the assessor for Waynesfield township attempted 
to list all the property north of the Fulton line, and up to what was 
known as the Harris line. This was resisted by the inhabitants of the 
disputed territory, and a long and almost bloody controversy between 
the State of Ohio and the Territory of Michigan ensued, continuing un- 
til June, 1836, when the Harris line was fixed by Congress as the north- 
ern boundary of Ohio, and Michigan yielded her jurisdiction over the 
disputed ground. In this controversy Michigan claimed for her south- 
ern boundary a line drawn due east from the southerly bend of Lake 
Michigan until it enters Lake Erie. In the Constitution of Ohio the 
northern boundary line was fixed as follows : "On a line drawn east- 
erly from the southerly bend of Lake Michigan, so far north, however, 
as to include the northerly cape of the Maumee Bay." This would make 
a difference of about seven miles at the Lake Erie end of the line, 
Michigan at this time (1836) applying to Congress for admission as a 
State of the Union, was refused untU she had, by a convention ot her 
people, changed her southern boundary to conform to the act of Con- 
gress, which she did, the same year, and was admitted to the sisterhood 
of States, with John Norvell and Lucius Lyon as Senators in Congress. 

What gave greater importance to the controversy at the time, was 
the desire of (^hio to terminate the Wabash & Erie Canal at navigable 
■waters within her own limits, and the result has shown the wisdom and 
foresight of the State government in securing that object. In the mean- 
time, however, and prior to t-lie settlement of the boundary question by 
Congress, the territory of Michigan had erected the county of Monroe, 
and Toledo was included in it under the name of Port La vrence town- 
ship. 

On the 28th of May, 1827, an election was held for this township, 
under the auspices of the territory of Michigan at the house of Eli Hub- 
bard, near where Lagrange street crosses Ten Mile Creek. 

The following named officers were elected : 

Supervisor — John T. Bali>\vin. 

Assessors — Noah A. \VHirNEN , John G. Fori'.ks and Damkl Mur- 
ray. 

Town Clerk — Josephus V. D. Sutphen, 

Collectors — Tibbai.s Baldwin and John Wai. worth. 



26 Maumce Valley Pioneer Association. 

Overseers of the Poor — Coleman I. Keeler, Eli Hubbard and 
William Wilson. 

Cotistab es — Alvin Evans, Tibbals Baldwin and John Roop. 
Commissioner of Highivays — William Wilson. 

\i an extra session of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, in 
the summer of 1835, the county of Lucas was organized, embracing all 
of the disputed ground, and a portion of the northern part of Wood 
county, with county '■'c.^ temporarily located at Toledo. In September, 
1S35, ^ Court of Common Pleas was held for the first time at Toledo, 
Judge David Higgins presiding; but its proceedings were so stealthily 
conducted that Governor Mason, of Michigan, who, with an army of 
volunteers, was encamped in the city, under Gen. Jos. W. Brown, 
was unable to find it. It was said the court was held early in the morn- 
ing before Mason's army was up. This year the township of Port Law- 
rence was organized under the laws of Ohio, and the machinery of Gov- 
ernment set in motion. During the years 1835 and 1836 frequent con- 
flicts of jurisdiction occurred between the Ohio and Michigan officials, 
up to the day that the news arrived of the settlement of the controversy 
by Congress. The conflicts, however, were generally bloodless. From 
that time to the present, under the various modifications of the city 
charter, civil and municipal government have kept pace with the gen- 
eral improvement of the country, until Toledo has become a city of the 
first class, and ranks with the foremost in the State in ])rogress and 
material wealth. 

There are many other interesting facts connected with the settle- 
ment of this valley that I might relate, had 1 time, showing how, step 
by step, the change from a state of barbarism to an advanced civiliza- 
tion has been brought about. 

We have to-day to deal with the instruments who, in the hands of 
God. have accomplished this great work. Ours is an association of pio- 
neers, and it is of them that we are met here to-day to speak. Pioneers 
are of various kinds. There are pioneers in the arts, the sciences, and 
pioneers in the dissemination of truth and of religion, and in many dis- 
coveries affecting the comfort and happiness of mankind. There are 
those that go down to the sea in ships, by which the discoveries of every 
nation are made to minister to our common wants, our happiness and 
our necessities. But the pioneer of the forest, the unbroken wilderness, 
differs from all these. His is a life of peril, of privation, and of danger 
from savage beasts, and more savage men, and, I might add, of a savage 
climate. 

In the first place these perils are encountered from different motives, 
all tending to the same result. Gabriel Godfrey and John Baptiste 



Matt nice Valley Pioneer Association. 



-I 



Beaugrand, the first white men who are known to have visited this va\ 
ley, as we have seen,, ventured here in search of gain, in exchanging their 
trinkets and wares with the Indians for their furs. Many came for the 
mere love of adventure. A passion for the chase brought many to this 
then paradise of hunters. The missionary, with a commendable zeal 
for the spiritual welfare of our red brother, sought him out in his forest 
home. Hunting, trapping, trading and preaching, brought these classes 
together in this field of labor, who, when danger menaced, were banded 
together for their common protection and security; and what these 
lacked in convincing the red man that destiny had designed this country 
for the Caucasian race, was made up by grape and canister well applied 
by the government, whose protecting hand is always ready to second 
the acquisition of the soil by her adventurous if not aggressive subjects; 
so that now, where less than a century ago the wolf and the panther 
roamed at will, and the Indian fires smoked undisturbed with the burn- 
ing bodies of human victims, we now see churches, school houses, col- 
leges and universities, and charitable and benevolent institutions, for the 
amelioration of the woes of the unfortunate, rising at every step, and 
accompanied by all the arts, adapted to the wants of civilized life, and 
protected by laws securing life, liberty and happiness to every citizen. 

For all this we are indebted to the pioneers ; and no niitter what 
their motives in coming here, we must look to the accomplished results 
in awarding the true meed of praise to these heroes. We owe them a 
debt of gratitude we can never repay. They have rescued this fair val- 
ley from the darkness to which for centuries it had been doomed, and 
peopled it with a new race, inspired by a broader and more enlightened 
humanity, and where right and not might is recognized in the security 
of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Destiny, the pages of his- 
tory have proclaimed in ineffaceable letters that the whole earth shall 
be subdued to civilization ; the stronger races are reaching after it, and 
it is a sickly philanthropy that would postpone the day, by ]irolonging 
the sway of the inferior races over any poition of the habitable earth. 

Nature's law, not manV:, has decreed that this revolution shall be 
carried en by the Aryan or Caucasian race, and that he shall occupy 
the earth. The black races, the Indian, the Negro, the Mongolian, and 
other inferior races, must give way to the march of development, and 
the time will probably come when the earth may be peopled by a tyjie 
of men superior to any of the races that now inhabit it. If any evidence 
were needed to sustain the truth of these remarks, my witnesses are be- 
fore me in this mass of intelligent white faces, in a land where but yes- 
terday all was dark. There are no politics in this ; no party feeling or 
bias. I deal with this subject from a physiological standpoint, whose 
logic I hold to be incontroveitible. It is not for me to say how this 



28 Mauniee Valley Pioneer Association. 

revolution is to be accomplished, nor the centuries it may take to bring 
it about. It will come around in God's own time and in His own way. 
In the meantime let us extend the hand of fellowship and sympathy to 
the remnant of this band of pioneers; they are our benefactors and our 
brethren ; and if there be a resurrection, which we all hope for, these 
pioneers will find their reward at the right hand ; for they have been the 
instruments in the hands of God in accomplishing His purposes, and He 
never fails to recompense the servant who has faithfully and successfully 
done his work. 

Then followed the reading of Gen. Hunt's lieminiscences of Pioneer 
Life, by Thomas Dunlap : 

SKETCH OF COL. THOMAS HUNJ'. 

He was born in Boston, Mass., in 1755. ^^ ^^'-^^ engaged in the 
battle of Lexington, and was wounded at Bunker Hill. He was at the 
storming of Stony Point, under Gen. Anthony Wayne, when he received 
a bayonet wound. He was promoted for good conduct in this affair to 
a Lieutenancy in the ist Regiment U. S. Infantry. He served under 
Wayne through the revolutionary war, and continued his connection 
Avith the I St Regiment during his life. 

During the Indian war he, with his regiment, was stationed in com- 
mand of Fort Defiance, with the rank of Major. 

Gen. Harrison, at that time a Lieutenant, and Major Cass, father of 
Gen. Lewis Cass, then a Captain, both served with him in the same 
regiment. 

After commanding at Fort Defiance eighteen months he was ordered 
to Fort Wayne, at w'hich place, in 179S, Gen. John E. Hunt, the relator 
of these sketches of Pioneer Life, was born. I give his narrative in his 
own words.* He goes on to say : 

Directly after the death of Col. Hamtramk my father was promoted 
to the Colonelcv of the Regiment, and ordered to Detroit, where he 
commanded until 1803, when he was ordered to St. Louis, Mo., with his 
regiment, to take possession of that country, under the Treaty with 
Spain. 

In June of that year we left Detroit in fifty Montreal batteaux, and 
although 73 years have passed, being then but five years old, I recollect 
distinctly entering the mouth of Swan Greek, near Fort Industry. The 
Seargent in the bow of the boat in which the family were, shot at some 
ducks, and the gun bursting, tore off one of his thumbs and lacerated 
his hand. 

The effect of this incident upon my mind was to make a deep and 
lasting impression as to the locality. While here we heard the news of 



Mauincc I'allcy Pioneer Association. 29 

the burning of Old Detroit. 'I'his was tliought a great calamit)-, but 
proved otherwise. 

The old town was laid out in narrow, crooked streets. The U. S. 
Government ordered a re-survey, and appointed Judge Woodward to 
make it. The result was the broad, noble avenues and pul)lic square 
which make Detroit a city of remarkable beauty. 

We passed up the Maumee River, then called the Miami of Lake 
I^rie, the men wading and hauling the boats over the rapids. After a 
tedious journey, we arrived at Fort Wayne. On arriving there my 
eldest sister remarked to my mother, " there is a very fair looking 
young man," referring to Dr. Edwards, Surgeon's mate, who was stand- 
ing in company with Major Whipple, the commanding officer of the 
For:. At the same tinie Dr. Edwards said to Major Whipple, referring 
to my sister, '"there is a very fine looking young girl." The result was 
that within ten days they were married. The wedding took ])lace at 
the Fort, while we were waiting for our boats to be hauled over the 
portage of nine miles between the head waters of St. Joseph's River, 
whose course lay north-east, through the Maumee River and the Lakes 
to the St. Lawrence, and by that way to the Atlantic Ocean and the 
head waters of the Wabash River, flowing Southward through the Mis- 
sissippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Five Medals, a celebrated Potawata- 
mie Chief, requested, on behalf of himself and twenty of the principal 
warriors of his tribe, the privilege of attending the marriage ceremony* 
their particular motive being probably a chance at the "firewater." 
To gratify them my father allowed them to be present. 

When passing down Little River, a tributary of the Wabash, and so 
narrow that the bushes and tree branches from each bank nearly met, 
the snakes were very plenty, so much so that it was quite a common 
occurrence for the men to knock them from the branches with their 
setting poles as we passed, and in several instances they fell into the 
boats. On one occasion a large rattle -snake, thus dislodged from the 
projecting limb of a tree, nearly fell into my mother's lap. In such 
cases we were obliged to land and discharge the cargo to get the snakes 
out of the boat. 

After reaching St. Louis my father built the Cantonment at Delle- 
fontaine, on the Missouri River. Block houses made of hewn timber 
formed three sides of a stpiarc, the river bank, which was very abrupt, 
making the fourth side. I was rolling a hoop one day, near the river 
bank, when I saw two or three bark canoes of Lidians, as 1 supposed. 
I immediately told my father there were some strange looking Indians 
at the landing, and they had long beards, and large flapped hais on. 
He arose from his seat and exclaimed at once, ''it must be Lewis and 



30 Maumcc Valley Pioneer Association. 

C'larke," and so it proved to be. They had been absent under orders 
of Government for over three years, on an expedition over the Rocky 
Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and had not been heard from for 
upwards of two years. They were officers of the same regiment. 
Lewis was a Captain, Clarke a Lieutenant. They were saluted by 
artillery, and invited to my father's house. I recolle:t my mother gave 
them a feather bed to sleep on, but they could not endure it, and took 
the Buffalo robes from under it and slept on the floor upon them. 

In 1807 my father died at Bellefontaine, aged 52, I, with my sister 
Mary, went to Fort Wayne to remain with my brother-in-law, Dr. Abra- 
ham Edwards. My brother, George Hunt, was also at Fort Wayne, 
acting as clerk to Col. John Johnson, the government factor at that 
station. y\fter a year or two he left Ft. Wayne for St. Louis, where he 
obtained an assortment of Jndian Goods from the factor there, and 
proceeded to the Upper Mississippi, where he established a trading 
post, and began to trade. About the ist of January, 1813, he heard of 
war against Great Britain, and knowing the Indians were about joining 
the British, he concluded it would not be safe to remain longer in the 
Indian country. He and his men therefore loaded his boat with furs 
and goods and lead, and while taking their breakfast before leaving, a 
party of twenty or thirty Winnebago Indians rushed into their house 
and shot down his five men, and were making towards him with their 
tomahawks raised to kill him, when he sprang for a keg of powder left 
upon the counter, struck the head of the keg in with his heel, seized a 
brand of fire, and was about blowing up the Indians and himself, when 
they scampered out of the house like so many rats from a burning barn. 
When they found the house was not blown up as they e.xpected, they 
all returned, but kept at a respectful distance. At that critical moment 
an old Chief, a friend of the Government, and of my brother, rode up 
to the house, and immediately reached out his hand to shake hands 
with my brother, saying, " How do. Englishman," the other Indians 
advanced, and said, " Is he an Englishman ! " " Certainly he is" said 
his friend, " and I will take him to my camp and report the whole mat- 
ter to our British Father." He did take him to his camp, and directed 
his wife to make two or three pairs of moccasins for him, and as soon 
as the next day dawned the Chief awoke my brother and told him he 
must leave at once for Ft. Madison, 250 miles down the River, and that 
his son would pilot him down. 

They left, and about three miles from the camp they came upon the 
tracks of deer, which led them away from the river. The Indian 
instead of keeping down tlie river, followed the deer tracks, leading 
from the river out of their direct course. My brother began to suspect 
that the Indian was treacherous, and said to him in a firm but angry 



Maiimee V\illcy Pioneer Associatioi. 31 

tone, " What are you following those tracks for? I want to go to 
Ft. Madison." The Indian replied in his blunt way, " Vou fool, don't 
you see the Winnebagos will find out you are not an Englishman, and 
there being fresh snow on the ground, if they go to father's camp to 
find you in the morning, they will see our tracks. Mother will tell 
them they are the tracks of hunters, and when they find we have left 
the direct route to Ft. Madison, and followed these deer tracks, they 
will believe my mother, and go down the river on the other side." 
This proved to be the fact, for on the third day after they left the 
camp they discovered the same party who killed the five men at the 
trading post. But they were on the opposite side of the river, and the 
ice was running so that they could not get over to them. The Indian 
guide and my brother continued down the river until they got about 
seven miles from Ft. Madison. It was growing dark as they came in 
sight of a cabin. They went in, and to their utter surprise, found that 
the Indians had left the house but a short time before, having killed 
and scalped the whole family of nine persons. A single person, a 
colored woman, with the youngest child about four months eld, had, as 
they afterwards learned, escaped. 

The Indians could not have been gone but a short time, as my 
brother said, the blood of the victims was still smoking. A young 
man in one of the rooms had been killed in the act of writing at a 
table, as the pen, ink, paper and unfinished writing were on the table 
beside which he lay. My brother expected to be shot at every step 
when leaving the house, until he reached the Fort. After traveling 
about five miles they overtook the black woman, with the child of the 
white family upon her back'. The snow being very deep, the poor 
creature was hardly able to walk, and seemed completely exhausted by 
fear and fatigue. For two or three days before reaching the Fort my 
brother had had great difficulty in persuading the Indian guide to con- 
tinue with him, he being so far gone with fatigue. My brother took 
the child from the woman and carried it to the Fort. He has fretiuent- 
ly told me he never saw a happier couple than the negro woman and 
Indian guide when they reached the Fort in safety. Some years after, 
a treaty was held at Prairie Du Chien, with these same Indians,at which 
time they called to see my brother, and said that he must give them a 
feast in consideration of their kindness to him. 

Understanding the Indian character, and expecting to receive from 
them, at the coming treaty, his pay for the loss of his goods, furs and 
lead, notwithstanding the unreasonableness of the request, he complied 
and bought a beef for a barbacue. At the feast, as is usual on such 
occasions, speeches were made, in which the Chiefs recounted their war 
exploits. 'I'he Chief who was head of the band at the massacre of my 



32 Maumec ]'allcv Pioneer Associatio:!. 

brother's five men, told how they killed them, and how much they had 
frightened him. My brother in his reply, said he thought they had 
better not have said anything about that affair, as they had taken him 
by surprise when eating his breakfast, and the attack was such as only 
women would make, not warriors, as they pretended to be. He closed 
by asking them if they had any recollection of his making them all run 
with a brand of fire. At this they dropped their heads and concluded 
they would eat more and talk less. 

As compensation for his losses my brother received from them al 
this treaty ten thousand dollars. 

It was in June, 1813, I saw one of the wildest and most grand 
Indian displays f ever beheld. Colonel Dickson, of the British Indian 
department, had been to the upper Mississippi and Green Bay region, 
collecting Indians to fight for them. About 1200 warriors came down ' 
the Detroit River to Sandwich, one very fine morning, all in their birch 
bark canoes, with British flags flying, singing their war songs. As they 
approached the head quarters of C/en. Proctor, the line of canoes nearly 
reached across the Detroit River. At a given signal they began firing 
their guns and turned the bows of their canoes towards the Canada 
shore, landing one after another, in beautiful order. They were met 
upon landing by parts of the 41st and of the 39th British regulars, with 
their bands playing and colors flying, the Indians formed in sciuads of 
fifty each squad being painted differently all over tiieir bodies, as they 
were nearly in a nude state. They thus advanced, escorted by the 
troops, and dancing and singing their war songs, until they reached the 
house of Gen. Proctor, when an Indian orator made a speech to him, in 
which he said, all they asked was to get a chance at the Long Knives at 
Fort Meigs, that they could climb the Fort like sciuirrels, and they 
wished to show their British fathers the bravery of the Indian warriors. 
Gen. Proctor told them he would lead them to battle in a few days, and 
he did lead them to Fort Meigs, which they failed to take, and passed on 
to Fort Stephenson, where the British army, Indians and all, were whip- 
ped by (!ol. Croghan; and in a few days you could have seen these very 
brave Indian warriors sneaking back, one by one, sailing past Detroit 
for Green Bay, having had quite enough of the Long Knives and their 
big guns. 

I recollect perfectly well the day the British force left Sandwich on 
this expedition. Col. Short, of the British 41st Infantry, boarded with 
my school teacher, Mr. Pringle. As he arose from the bieakfast table, 
clasping his sword belt around him, he said to me, "Well, Yankee, I am 
going to fight your ])eople, and I will bring you a scal|v, " I replied, he 
had better take care, he might lose his own. 

He commanded the storming party at Fort Stephenson. He crossed 



MaiDiicc J alley Pioneer Associatioi. 



.">o 



the ditch, and as he mounted the earthwork he waived his sword over 
his head saying, "Advance, boys, give the damned Yankees no (luar- 
ciuarter." Just at this moment a ball struck him in the forehead, and 
he rolled into the ditch, der-d. I was at Detroit after their return. 
Major Muier, who was second in command of the storming party, on 
that occasion, came into the store where I was, and threw himself upon 
the counter. 

Pulling off his cap, he said, " Look here, boy, what the Vankees done 
at Fort Stephenson; they came near scal|)ing me.." A ball had passed 
through his cap, grazing the top of his head, he rolled into the ditch 
pretending to be dead, until night cime, when he crawled out and 
escaped to the boats below the Fort. 

About this time, while I was still with my brother at Deroit, one 
morning I was standing on the porch of his house, when i heard the 
scalp whoop of Indians coming up the river bank. It proved to be a 
party of Ottawa Indians. They came up to where I was standing, and 
to my horror, I saw they had with them a whole family of children from 
the age of two years to eighteen, the two eldest were girls, in all nine of 
them. And the scalp they had upon a pole was that of the mother of 
these children. Owing to her being in a delicate situation, she was un- 
able to travel and keep pace with them, and two young Indians were 
chosen by Parchan, the Chief of the party, to kill her; which they did, 
leaving the body stretched upon a log in a horridly mutilated state, 
when it was afterwards so found by a party of white men, about five 
miles from Cole Creek, in Huron County, Ohio, not far from Clyde. 

My brother bought this family from the Indians, and they were sent 
home without the loss of one. 'J'he first intelligence of the building of 
our fleet at Erie, by Commodore Perry, was given us by the two grown 
girls of this family. 

-Vfter Detroit was re-occupied by our soldiers, under Cen. Harrison, 
1 recollect when the Indians made their appearance with a flag of truce, 
to sue for peace, some of that party of ( )ttawas, and I believe their leader 
Parchan, were with them. The father of this family, Mr. Snow, who 
had joined the army, to avenge the cruel death of his wife, learned the 
fact, and they had to place a guard over him to prevent his killing some 
of those Indians. And I believe if Ottuson, who had treated Capt. 
Baker so well when he had taken him prisoner, had not headed this 
band, the soldiers would have killed every one of them. I knew tlie 
two young Indians who were selected to kill Mrs. Snow, and I once said 
to them, " Were you not ashamed to commit so cruel an act .^ " 

They said a council was held, and the war chiefs had decided that 
it would not do to let her go back, as she would disclose the route they 
had taken. Therefore she must be killed, and that " it would not do for 



34 Matimee Valley Pioneer Association. 

us thus honored to show the white feather." But, said they, " when she 
schrieked the ground trembled under us, and we were sure the Great 
Spirit would be angry with us." I would here add that the Chief 
Parchan died a most miserable death, having f lUen into the fire in a 
drunken scrape, and burned his right arm so badly that he died a linger- 
ing death at Tonedoganie Village, about 12 miles above Maumee City. 
An incident of the battle of the Thames. It was in this fight that 
Mr. James Knaggs, brother of Whitmore Knaggs, took prisoner a British 
officer with a fence rail. The officer was trying to make good his re- 
treat, when he was followed closely by Knaggs, both being well 
mounted. In crossing a creek, the officer's horse mired, and threw him 
off, but he succeeded in crossing. Knaggs, who was a stout and active 
man, did not hesitate to follow, so both succeeded in landing on the 
same side, but both lost their guns in the creek. The British officer 
advanced on Knargs with his sword drawn, demanding a surrender in 
the name of King George. Knaggs seized a rail from a fence near by, 
and raising it, advanced upon his foe, demanding a surrender in the 
name of the United States. The officer came to the conclusion that 
discretion was the better part of valor, and- gave up his sword. I heard 
Knaggs say that when he took his prisoner to Gen. Harrison and told 
him how he was taken, the young man wept with mortification ; and 
Knaggs said he really felt soiry for him, for he had no doubt he was a 
brave young man, but a big fence rail, wielded by a tall, stout man, was 
too formidable a weapon against a common side sword. 

CAPT. WILLIAM WELLS. 

Among the most notable men of his class in those times was the 
celebrated scout known as Captain Wells. He was taken prisoner in 
Kentucky by the Miami Indians when a boy. He was adopted in the 
family of Little Turtle, a great orator and war chief. This Indian was 
considered a great man by the whites as well as by the Indians. In size 
he was a small man. I heard him make a speech at the treaty of 1808, 
at Fort Wayne, held by Governor Harrison, and boy as I was, I could 
not but admire his gestures and manner. Capt. Wells was raised among 
these Indians, and married a relative of Little Turtle. He continued 
with them, and fought on the side of the British against the Yankees, 
at the defeat of Gen. St. Clair, in which battle he killed nine of our men. 

After that time he began to reflect upon what he had done, and came 
to the conclusion that, as he was a Kentuckian, it was wrong for him to 
fight against his own people. He then joined the army of Gen. Wayne, 
and became a most efficient and valuable scout and spy. I heard him 
relate the circumstances of one or two scouts he made, in company with 
Lieut. McClennahan, who had also been a prisoner from boyhood 



Mail vice ] alley Pioneer Associatio7i. 35 

among the Indians. On one occasion they left the army with eleven 
men on a scout. After two or three days they came upon an Indian trail ; 
they could not tell how many there were of tliem, but concluded to fol- 
low them, and did so for two days. On the second day, about dark, both 
parties encamped. It was decided thai Wells should dress up like an 
Indian, and the jiarty should advance upon the Indian camp, in single 
file, and tiie moment they were discovered Wells was to advance and go 
directly into the camp, which was m ide of bark, with one side entirely 
open. McClennahan and his men were to lie down flat. After Wells 
got into the camp, he was to take a position on the extreme right of the 
Indians, where he could be seen distinctly by his party. At a signal to 
be given by Wells raising his arms over his head, his party was to fire 
and rush into the camp. Accordingly, when the Indians discovered 
Wells, his party laid down, and he advanced as agreed The Indians 
became alarmed, but when they saw an Indian, as they supposed, they 
put their guns away and met him as their friend with a hearty welcome. 
Wells took his position as agreed on, and began telling them a long story 
about their British father, giving them the news from Maiden, and in- 
forming them he had been sent as messenger to invite the warriors to 
join the British, to fight Gen. Wayne. The party consisted of twenty- 
three men and one old squaw. The Chief asked VVells if he were hun- 
gry. He saying he was, the old squaw put a kettle of hominy over the 
fire to warm. In a few minutes she got up to stir the hominy. Just 
then, McClennahan, supposing that Wells had given the signal, ordered 
the whole party to discharged their guns at the Indians. 

The first thing Wells saw was the old woman fall into the fire, while 
in the act of preparing his meal. There was no time to think; action 
was all that could save him. He drew his tomahawk and killed the 
Chief, who sat next to him, and two or three others, before they could 
recover from their confusion. Out of the whole number of twenty-four 
only two escaped. Wells had a ramrod shot into his wrist, and McClen- 
nahan was shot in the thigh. The whole party then returned to our 
army safely. 

When Gen. Wayne came down the Maumee River, in 1795, ^'^^ army 
encamped at Roche de Beauf, about one mile above the village of 
Waterville, in this county. 

He was anxious to get a prisoner, and, if possible, find out the 
strength of the Indian forces. He sent Wells and McClennahan out 
towards old Fort Miami for the i)urpose of picking u[) an Indian. When 
near Presque Isle, about three miles above Maumee City, they discov- 
ered an Indian and his wife coming towards them fronj the woods. 

They stopped and sat down upon a log The Indians, seeing them in 
Indian dress, came directly up to them, shook hands and entered into 
3 



36 Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 

conversation. Wells began to get information, but he soon saw the 
Indian began to suspect him, although his Indian language was perfect. 
Wells seeing the Indian began to be alarmed, he seized him, and Mc- 
Clennahan took the scjuaw, and they promptly marched them to 
Wayne's camp. The General kept them a day or two, showed them his 
force and his big guns, and told them to go to Fort Miami, where they 
had started to go, and tell the British officers, and the Indians, too, 
that he would in a few days switch them as a father would his little son. 
They left Wayne's camp with a light heart. A day or two after Wayne's 
army marched, and had only proceeded three miles when they were 
attacked by the Canadian whites and Indians, and Gen. Wayne fought 
the battle of the Fallen Timber, and gave them a most complete switch- 
ing, as he had promised. The Indian name given to Gen. Wayne after 
this fight was Kitch-e-no-tin, that is to say the Hurricane or Big Wind. 

MASSACRE AT CHICAGO. 

A {*t\\ days before the surrender of Detioit, we heard of the massa- 
cre of the garrison and citizens of Chicago." Capt. Wells was at that 
post, and was the uncle of the wife of the commnnding officer, Capt. 
Heald, who married Rebecca Wells, of Kentucky. This lady was a very 
good shot with a rifle. 

I recollect when a boy, at Fort Wayne, in 1808, when Capt. Heald 
was courting Miss W^ells, often setting up the mark for Miss Wells and 
the Captain to fire at, and most generally she came out best. 

Capt. Heald was ordered by the Secretary of War to vacate the post, 
and take his command to Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

After holding a council with the Indians, it was decided to leave on 
a given day. Before leaving, Capt. Wells told Cant. Heald he knew the 
Indians would attack them ; and he painted his face black,ias much as 
to say to the Indians, we are ready for you. The result showed Capt. 
Wells was right, for the troops had only [)roceeded on their way along 
the lake shore about a mile and a half, when they were fired upon by 
Indians, in ambush. The order was given to right face and charge up 
the bank. 

After the garrison left the Fort, Capt. Wells and his niece, Mrs. 
Heald, were riding in company, when they were fired upon by the In- 
dians. He said to her, " Rebecca, we must part; it is all that can be 
done to save your life ; if we are together, we shall both be killed." They 
embraced each other for the last time. He turned to the right to make 
the charge up the bank against the Indians. The whites numbered 
seventy men, the Indians from twelve to fifteen hundred. 

The charge was a most gallant one, but the disparity of numbers was 
too great. Notwithstanding the odds against them, they drove the In- 



Matimec Valley Pioneer Association. 37 

dians to the center of a small prairie, when a half breed Indian, who 
could talk English, advanced with a white flag, and told Capt. Heald if 
thev would surrender their lives should be spared. They then num- 
bered but seventeen, including officers, and after a brief parley, gave 
themselves up The last Mrs. Heald saw of Ca|>t. Wells was, as he 
reached the ridge, when he was shot down, and several Indians were 
scalping him and mutilating his body. I was told by an Indian by the 
name of I'.ennack, that every Indian who came uj) ale a part of his heart 
to give him courage. Mrs. Heald, fortunately, was taken by an old 
Potawatamie friend, after receiving five flesh wounds. He took her 
horse and told her to wade out into the lake up to her chin, and remain 
there until the battle was over, vvhen he would come for her. He was 
as good as his word. He placed her on the horse, and led her up to 
where the Indians were congregated, near the Fort. They were met by 
an old s(iuaw, who undertook to pull Mrs. Heald off the horse. But she 
was of too pure Kentucky blood to submit to such an insult from an In- 
dian woman. She drew her whip from her girdle and gave the squaw a 
good cowhiding, much to the amusement of the Indian warriors who, 
shouting, said she was a " brave," and should not be killed. They 
treated her and the other prisoners well until they were delivered up 
to the British officer in command at Mackinaw. They were kept there 
a few days, and sent down to Detroit in a cartel on her way to Niagara. 

I met Capt. Heald and his wife as they landed at Detroit. They 
seemed very much rejoif ed to meet any one they had ever known before, 
and more particularly, they said, to meet their little boy friend, who had 
set the target up for them to shoot at, at Fort Wayne, before their mar- 
riage. From them, and from a soldier by the name of Degarmo, who 
died 13 or 14 years ago at Maumee City, I got my information about 
this massacre of Chicago and the death of Capt. Wells. 

.\ daughter of Capt. Wells was married to Judge James Wolcott, late 
of Maumee City; and his grandaughter, Mrs. Mary .\nn Ciilbert, still 
resides at that place, on land inherited from the adopted son of Little 
Turtle, the Miami Chief. 

.\fter the reading of the reminiscences was concluded, the Vice 
President announced that the reception of new members was in 
order. 

Whereupon Col. N. M. Howard arose and came forward. He 
said : 

" Mr. President, and ladies and gentlemen : I wish to offer a reso- 
lution, and if I am allowed. I will jireface it with simi)ly a remark or 
two. 

" There has been much said about the Fathers of this section of the 
country, and I deem it proper that something more should be said about 



38 Maiimee I alley Pioneer Association. 

the mothers who were pioneers here. Having interested myself some- 
what within a few days in soliciting memberships to this Association, I 
found some ladies yet among us who came here at a very early date. 

" Perhaps, before going any further, I ought to make an apology for 
appearing among these grey-haired gentlemen ; but I feel a pride in 
claiming the banks of the Maumee River as the land of my nativity ; and 
yet do not claim to be much of a pioneer, although I have heard the 
wolves howl, and remember when in my childhood, of the wolves driv- 
the dogs right into my father's house. But as I look about me -and 
recognize pioneers who came here, some in 1850, some in 1840, and 
some in 1835, and even prior to that, I would simply say, that having 
been reared here and spent the most of my time for over 49 years in and 
about the Valley, I think I can testify somewhat to the merits of the 
pioneer mothers. And I believe others who have been in the Valley 
during even this period can testify with me as to the privations and 
hardships which these pioneer women were called upon to endure. And 
I hold that to-day we are largely indebted to these good pioneer moth- 
ers for the development of this country, and for the good of society 
over which they wielded a quiet but mighty influence. Many of them 
have already found their reward, and I feel assured others will find 
theirs. 

"Trusting that my motion will be seconded, I move that as a slight 
testimonial of the appreciation of this Association, for the worth and 
merit of the pioneer women of the Maumee Valley — all who came to the 
Valley prior to the year 1840 — be cordially invited to subscribe their 
names (or send them to the Secretary, with the date of their advent into 
the country, to be placed upon the record,) as honorary members of 
this Association, without the payment of any fee." 

The Colonel's happy speech was received with many manifestations 
of pleasure and warm endorsement, and it was so ordered by the Society* 
and the resolution was unanimously adopted. 

On motion of C. D. Woodruff, Hezekiah L. Hosmer was made an 
honorary member of the Association. 

The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: 

President—]. E. Hunt.* 

First Vice President — Hon. Henry Bennett. 

Second Vice President — Willard Trowbridge. 

Third Vice President — Hon. Asher Cook 

Trustees — Mayor Brigham, Chauncy D. Woodruff, and Col. N. 
M. Howard. 

Secretary and Treasurer — Thomas Dunlap. 

The meeting adjourned to the Boody House for dinner. 

♦Holds his office for life. 



Maiimce J 'alley /'/oncer Association. 39 

At 4:30 o'clock the cloth was removed and the Vice President, 
Mr. Henry Bennett, announced as the first thing in order the read- 
ing, by Judge Dun lap, of a letter from an old pioneer now in Califor- 
nia, Mr. H. L. Hosmer. The letter was as follows: 

S.'\N Francisco, I'cb. 16, 1877. 

Mv Dkar Sir : — Voiir favor of the 7th inst., received within the j)ast 
half hour, is before me. The retpiest it contains calls uj) so many mem- 
ories that I cannot resist an attemj)ted compliance, though conscious 
that my letter will, by mere chance, reach you in time to be read at the 
annual banquet of ye Pioneer As.sociation. I find, as years increase 
upon me, my affection for the past grows stronger, and uni)atriotic as it 
may seem, I take more interest now in the events of forty years ago 
than in the results of the Electoral Commission. I had rather know 
that you and a dozen other old Toledo friends are in good health and 
in the enjoyment of prosperity and happiness, than to know that Hayes 
is elected to the Presidency. How many of the self-sacrificing honest 
patriots who fought on one side or the other during the last Presidential 
contest, and since would be willing to make such an old time con- 
fession ! And who that has acted in this crisis, will forty years hence, 
when the memory of his early friendships is hallowed by age, and yet 
fresh and green, remember the disgraceful squabble between the two 
great |)arties ir^ their efforts to swindle each other in a question where 
the right is so nicely balanced, that one hardly knows which to con- 
gratulate — the victor or the victim. But then what shall I wri le about .' 
So many memories crowd upon me whenever I think of my life in the 
Maimiee Valley, that I hardly know where to begin. In good earnest. I 
would probably experience the same difficulty in knowing where to stop. 
I should like very much to be with you at your festival, but as I cannot 
be present at the real feast, I must content myself with an imaginary 
one. Well, there is Judge Potter to be;:';in with, he delivers the address. 
I know it will be worthy of him. and suited to the occasion, for there 
were very few of his early contemporaries whose lives were fuller of in- 
teresting incidents and associations. I traveled the Circuit with him in 
the days of the Count, Spink, Higgins, old Phil. Hoj)kins, 'V/ id omne 
^einis." When Waite was a young lawyer, laying the foimdation for 
that learning and skill which has deservedly placed him at the head of 
the profession, and when mud and high water, and even tornadoes, were 
no imj)ediments to the restless ambition of both judges and lawyers. If 
you don't believe this, call to mind our first visit to New Rochester, to 
hold Court for Paulding County. Potter had a grand horse in those 
days which he had just purchased, I think, of Jonathan Neely. .\bbott 
and I rode from New Rochester to Defiance ahead of the storm. Potter 



40 Matimce Valley Pioneer Association. 

followed an hour afterwards borne on the wings of the whirlwind, arriv- 
ing in Defiance at a late hour, saturated with rain and mud, and owing 
his life, as I verily believe, to the facility with which his horse dodged 
the falling trees that the tornado threw down in his course, and leaping 
over the tops of others prostrated before him. It was a wild ride. But 
these incidents were so numerous of one kind and another in those days 
that it seems invidious to single any of them. 

Well, then comes John Fitch, an old man now, but young, fresh and 
vigorous, when I first knew him. He was deemed a model prosecutor 
and most sagacious lawyer. With all his reticence and close attention 
to business, Fitch possessed a vein of social oddity that rendered him a 
pleasant companion, as he was always a gentlemanly and obliging 
opponent. 

Charley Hill — and when I speak of him, I recall very many delight- 
ful associations. I knew him when he first went to work as a lawyer, and 
how, under many disadvantages, he worked his way up to a foremost 
rank in the profession. Toil and Charley became so familiar, that 
Charley was but another name for Toil. 

No man ever deserved better of his fellow men for self-sacrifice and 
devotion to the public interests, and it is with sorrow I learn that toil 
has really beaten him in the race he set out upon 40 years ago. I could 
spend a few hours with him delightfully in talking over events in his life 
and mine with which we were both familiar. In fact 1 have never for- 
gotten his many acts of kindness. 

I have not time to write of all who will be present at your festive 
board, but as I look in upon you, through the medium of fancy, I can 
see, beside those mentioned, the forms of General Hunt, Samuel M. 
Young, Wm. Baker, Thomas Dunlap, my old shool boy companion half 
a century ago, Charley Dorr, Charles Kent, J. J. French, etc. But how 
many are missing! Edward Bissell, Junius Flagg. H. D. Mason, Daniel 
O. Morton, John C Spink, Andrew Coffinbury, andahost of others who 
have preceded us in the march to the " undiscovered country." 

The past is ours, but while we can live in that, we can also look for- 
ward to the future we hope. But the Pioneers of the Maumee Valley 
should hold a lasting place in the memory of their immediate descend- 
ents, and in the respect and veneration of all who come after them. 
From the earliest history of the Valley to the generation of settlers 
which is now rapidly passing away, they had a greater variety of 
obstacles to overcome than any other portion of Ohio, if not of the en- 
tire Northwest. It was first the Indian, then war, then climate, then re- 
moving forests, reclaiming soil, and introducing improvements in a 
country subject to all possible physical difficulties. 

The growth of the Valley has l)een wonderful, when these triumphs 



Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 4' 

,i;ffir„lties ire taken into account, as compared witli other regions, 
Xr t .1, an existed. The pioneers who live to-day, do not 
his so larce a city in Toledo as the cities of Clhtcago and St. 
r:;,irt.'; p neers o/the Utter cties found .n their surroundtngs 
he ame evidence of severe to.l and frequent causes of dtsappomtment 
"l fad re that had to he conquered before any progress "" "^ "f - 
■11 e beautiful Valley of the Maumee passes from your hnnd to that of 
ur descendants, rich wuh a,, the blessings "^ cuUure and .mprove 
L„, It >vas fresu and untouched when you found .t, but it is to da y 
"he Ibode of health, wealth and happiness. You have great reason to 
le proud of your conquest, and your labors deserve the reward of a 
erateful and everlasting remembrance. 

, am writing in great haste to send .his letter by the even,„g n«, , 

and have no '^T;;:; ^ rT., J':™' '^'hTs 'Z^TC^ 
:;pVc:rr:fher";,n';;rs::ndpr„nri;esinherfutt,retosurpassthe™. 

Hez. L. Hosmer. 



Mr. Bennett announced the first regular toast. 
" George Washington "-Response by Governor Lee. 
Mr. Lee responded in an eloquent and impressive address, which was 
listened to with close attention. He spoke of Washington s early life, 
"uth and the manner in which befitted himself for '^^ P-^-J^^ 
was afterward called upon to fill. While engaged in surveying the im- 
^^ef^tsof Virginia, he went into the army, and there acquire h 
knowledge of warfare and thorough ac<|uaintance with h 'ndi ns 
which made his subsequent campaigns so successful. In 1775 he was 
lac d in command of the army of the United States, a position he was 
m nen iv qualified to fill. He led the armies of America ,o victory he 
gltest and grandest commander in the land. As he was first caUed 
fo the head of American armies, he was afterwards called to the head of 
her civic affairs, as .he one most to be trusted in the discharge of th 
m ,o ant office He was President of the Conventton that framed the 
CoiTs ttu on and under that Constitution he was elected President of 
^he Un ted Stales, and filled the highest office in .he gift o. the people 
for two uccessive terms. But he sought no political preferment, and at 
he cos of his second term, withdrew to his beloved Mt. Vemon. . n 
h abearance of the renewal of the French war, he was called agam u 
the head of the armies, but their services were not needed. In . ,79. he 
died of a disease contracted while in the discharge of his duty to the 
people whom he loved so well. Rut his name has not passed away. All 
Ihrough the land, from highest to lowest, the name of Washington is re. 
spec.ted and revered. 



42 Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 

The Governor closed his address by reading an extract from Jeffer- 
son's opinion of Washington. 

The Vice President then gave " The Early Bench and Bar of the 
Maumee Valley." Response by Hon J. R. Osborn. 

RECOLLECTIONS 

OF THE EARLY BENCH AND BAR OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY. 
BY JOHN R. OSBORN, OK THE LUCAS COUNTY BAR. 

I am called upon to speak to the toast, " The Early Bench and Bar 
of the Maumee Valley. " If what I am expected to speak about be con- 
fined to personal reminiscences, then there is an earlier period in the 
very beginning of the settlement of the Valley, to which my memory 
runneth not to the contrary or otherwise. One of the very earliest ot 
the Blackstone students who planted himself beside the waters of our 
broad river is still living, — an octogenarian of judicial learning, an 
author of research and deserved repute, and a lawyer of severe discip- 
line and hard study. I refer to the Hon. Thomas Powell, now of the 
city of Delaware, in this State. He came to the River in May, of the 
year 1820, immediately after the organization of the county of Wood, a 
large county, then in its territorial extent, embracing the whole of the 
Maumee Valley, and extending to the northern boundary of the State. 
Mr. Powell continued to reside at the town of Perrysburg, until the 
year 1830, when he removed to the county of Delaware, where he has 
ever since resided. Mr Powell has put us in possession of the per- 
sonnelle of his professional associates, and many interesting incidents 
of the early Bench and Bar of this Valley in a very entertaining account 
furnished to the Editor, Mr. H. S. Knapp, for his volume on the His- 
tory of the Maumee Valley. Just before leaving Perrysburg, Mr. John 
C. Spink came then to reside and to pursue his profession, and occupied 
the office of Mr. Powell, and may therefore be regarded as his lineal 
successor. 

The recollections in which T shall indulge this afternoon, refer to 
events succeeding these of which Mr. Powell has given so piquant 
account, and to actors who have subsetpiently figured prominently and 
actively in this honored profession, and upon whom the curtain has 
fallen. 

LUCAS COUNTY BAR. 

On Monday morning last (Feb. 19), when almost the entire Bar 
came together in our court rooms to attend upon the calling of the 
docket, hearing motions, and other business pertaining to that day of 



Alauvice Valley Pioneer Association. 43 

the week, there were, say, sixty or seventy of these gentlemen present. I 
looked upon the crowd to see if any one was there whom I could remem- 
ber to have been at the same Har in the fall of the year 1837, when I 
first saw the waters of the Maumee. There were none. Two members 
of the present Bar, resident in Toledo, whose occasional presence in the 
pursuits of their earlier years still make them to be of our number, were 
then in the full tide of vigorous professional life, viz. the Hon. John 
Fitch and Hon. E. D. Potter, 'i'here is also another of our townsmen 
who was then of the Perrysburg Bar, Henry Bennett, Esq., and still 
another, BMson Allen, Escj., whose coming was only the next year, and 
who still makes his occasional appearance amid the crowd of younger 
brethren. I find, however, another one whose continued active prac- 
tice in his profession from that period to the present justly entitles him 
to rank as the Nestor of the Lucas County Bar. Gen. C. W. Hill was 
then a student in the office of D. O. Morton, and admitted to practice 
the next year, 183S, and thence continuously has occupied a leading 
and prominent place among the lawyers of Lucas County. As to any of 
the rest the return of 7wn est must be made. 

The years 1836 and '37 following hard upon what was called the Pet 
Bank system of the General Ciovernment, were prolific in land specu- 
lations, especially in the then Western States. The land offices had 
"been thronged with an army of speculators, and a great impulse had 
been given to the settlement of the unimproved Territory. The emi- 
gration into Michigan, Illinois and Indiana had been unprecedented. 

Just at or before this time the great improvement which was under- 
taken conjointly by the States of Ohio and Indiana, in making the Wabash 
Canal, assumed an importance which has not and never will be realized. 
The railroad, with its power to control commerce, was an unknown 
institution. Even the far-sighted and shrewd calculator of future com- 
binations, our late fellow citizen, Jessup Scott, had not taken this factor 
into the account of causes operating to make the Future Great City. 
The termination of this great (."anal, upon some point on the shore of 
the Maumee Bay, had given to all the territory in the vicinity of the 
Bay, or of the waters ent'jring into it, a value which may well be said 
to have been wholly fictitious. From the City of Monroe on the River 
Raisin, to .Maumee and I'errysburg, the country was ripe with specula- 
tions, and covered with paj)er cities like leaves in Val Ambrosia. 

In the summer of 1S37, two young men, residents at the village of 
Norwalk, in Huron County, ambitious for a wider and more hoj)eful 
field in their profession, carried along with the general current, possi- 
bly, also, '■ scenting the prey from afar," concluded to make exjilora- 
tions for themselves into this El Dorado. They visited, explored and 
acted. The law firm of Tilden & Osborn was then formed, and guided 



44 Maiimee Valley Pioneer Association. 

by the advice of friends, one of whom Chester Walbridge, warm hearted 
and zealous, is prominently worthy of our remembrance, it located in 
the city of Toledo. A new and commodious office on the corner of 
Superior and Lagrange streets had just been erected, and was then 
occupied, and continued to be their office while the junior member at 
that time remained in Toledo. 

JUDGE TILDEN. 

Of this early friend and partner in business, I may here in the midst 
of so many of his old neighbors, be pardoned if I speak with some in- 
terest. Myron H. Tilden is a very fair sample of the results of sys- 
tematic pursuit of ones profession. Not favored with greater advan- 
tages in respect to a classical education than were common to the youth 
of his neighborhood, he nevertheless became quite early interested in 
literary and intellectual pursuits. With an instinct which led him to 
the study of the law as adapted to his mental processes, he applied him- 
self with enthusiasm in mastering its intricacies, and making practical 
application of its abstract rules. He early exhibited the talent of ex- 
pounding the law, which in later years gave his opinions as judge or as 
professor so much clearness and precision. He was hardly three years 
a practising lawyer, before he had in his office a class of students to 
whom, atthat early period, he delivered lectures'with the unction which . 
in his larger fields he could scarcely have surpassed. In addition to 
this enthusiasm, his professional life was marked with great and weari- 
some labor and study, secured to him by a retentive memory invaluable 
to the lawyer. Judge Tilden became a leading lawyer in Toledo, and 
continued among the chiefs of the profession, until the year 1844, when, 
as successor of Judge E. ]). Potter, he was elected by the Legislature 
presiding judge of this District. He <[uitted a lucrative practice, to 
accept a position which compensated him at the trifling salary of seven 
hundred and thirty dollars per annum. This absurd payment was the 
result of an afflicting dispensation of demagoguery which fell on both 
parties alike, when in the year 1842-3 the Legislature reduced all salaries 
and pay of |)ublic -servants to the uniform standard of $2.00 per day. 

About the year 1850-5 r, he was invited by Wm. R. Morris, a promi- 
nent member of the Cincinnati Bar, to go to that city, and immediately 
the firm of Morris, Tilden & Raviden was formed, with a large and 
lucrative practice. He has since been called to the Hench of the 
Superior Court of Cincinnati, and with some of the characteristics of his 
earlier life, and with an unsullied reputation, he disjjenses even-handed 
justice to the people of the Queen City. 

JUDGE LANE. 

The first term of the Supreme Court in Lucas County after our loca- 
tion, viz. : in 1838, was held by Judges Lane and Grimke. 



Maicmee Valley Pioneer Association. 45 

Ebenczcr Lane was a Lyme, Connecticut, man, who emigrated to 
the county of Huron as early as the year 1823 or '24. The county of 
Huron then contained half a million of acres of land, which had been 
set apart by the State of Connecticut for the benefit of the sufferers 
whose houses and property had been burned by the British, in the Revo- 
lutionary war, and was generally known as the Fire Lands. The people 
of Lyme, Danbury, Norwalk, New London, Norwich, and other towns, were 
joint owners of the property thus set apart for their benefit. But until 
about this period, it had been the abode of savages and of wild animals, 
and was therefore deemed of little account to the Connecticut proprie- 
tors, until the tide of emigration began its westward flow. It was from 
the'ie influences, however, that Judge Lane came to Norwalk, then the 
shire town of the county, centrally situated in the Fire Lands, and 
beautiful for situation. The practice of the profession in that early 
period partook of the same characteristics as in frontier settlements, and 
Lane traveled over a considerable part of the northern counties. He 
had an education at Yale, and was superior to the large majority 
of the legal fraternity in the State where he practiced. In the year 
1828, he was elected to the Common Pleas Bench of the Ir.rge District 
which embraced all the counties in the Northwestern part of the State. 
In 1830, he was transferred to the Supreme Bench, and resided at Nor- 
walk when I came to that village in the year 1835. As a man he was 
(juick, nervous and impatient. It was with great difficulty he could 
endure the long-drawn platitudes he was compelled to listen to while 
upon the Bench. He studied brevity, impressed it constantly on his 
younger brethren, and was so economical in words that he often became 
obscure, and it is this feature more than any other that is complained 
of in his reported decisions. 

He was a clear, methodical and accurate pleader, a diligent student, 
a very modest man, almost ajjproaching feminine delicacy, so that it 
became the delight of some of his associates, especially Judge Nat. 
Reed, to annoy him with profane and sometimes not very polite or 
modest anecdote or argument. .After he left the Bench, Judge Lane 
removed to Sandusky City, and engaged in the practice of his profession 
actively at that place. I remember on one occasion when the con- 
tractors for building a bridge sued the County Commissioners of Huron 
County, he made the longest speech he was ever known to make, 
namely, an hour and thirty minutes. But it was a very masterly argu- 
ment. Without once repeating himself, he unravelled a great mass of 
confused accounts, bills and contracts, and so clearly and lucidly 
brought order out of chaos, that he carried the jury without any trouble 
to his conclusions. It was seldom, however, that he would take part in 
the contests ot the court room before a jury. His mind was judicial, 
and it was with the principle of the law that he seemed most at home, 



46 Mauviee Valley Pioneer Association. 

and in argument and analytical statement before the Judges on the 
Bench he found his most successful forum. In the year 1854, he was 
made General Solicitor of the Illinois Central Railway, and made his 
home thenceforth at Chicago, until a short time before his death, which 
took place in the year i860. 

His associate at the term of which I speak, was Judge Frederick 
Grimke, of Chillicothe. 

JUDGE FREDERICK GRIMKE. 

This gentleman was the brother of Thomas Smith (Jrimke, of the city 
of Charleston, S. C, a prominent politician, lawyer and orator, well 
known in all the Southern States, and of almost national reputation. 

Judge Gi imke was a man whose appearance would impress a stranger 
at once. Of a large, broad forehead, sunken eyes and shaggy evebrows» 
a dark hue in the color of his face, and a countenance winning and 
placid, he would be estimated as a man of more than ordinary char- 
acter. He settled early in the town of Chillicothe, and jjractised his 
profession chiefly in the counties within the Scioto Valley, and probably 
to some extent in the Muskingum Valley. His cotemporaries in the 
various counties where his circuit lay, were such men as Thomas Scott, 
Peter Douglass, Edward King and William Creighton, of Chillicothe ; 
Joseph OldS; of Circleville ; Thomas Ewing, Philemon Beecher and 
William W. Irving, of Lancaster; Benjamin Tappan and John C. Wright, 
of Steubenville ; Gustavus Swan, of Columbus, and Samuel F. Vinton, of 
Galliopolis, all of whom were men eminent in the history of this State, 
for vigorous thought and learning in their profession, and more particu- 
larly in regard to real estate law, the system of English tenures and cor- 
responding subjects. The southern counties, and probably a few of the 
central, were situated in what was termed as to land titles, the Virginia 
Military District, Military Bounties, Salt Reservation, Refugee Lands, 
the Ohio Comj)any's Purchase, and perhaps some other classes of lands; 
the orignal titles to which came from different sources and from the 
want of system and uniformity in the manner of their sale, endless per- 
plexities and confusion arose in the transfer and ownership by the in- 
habitants. Hence much of judicial learning and practice of courts was 
employed on questions of entry, survey, priorities, notice, possession and 
improvements, as the earlier volumes of the Ohio Reports will abund- 
antly testify. These were subjects, however, quite germain to the men- 
tal characteristics of Judge Grimke, and in their analysis he was scarcely 
inferior to any of his brethren. 

This gentleman lived and died a bachelor. Whether crossed in 
early love or from natural repugnance, he had no affinities for the fair 
sex. They used to say of him in Chillicothe that he would cross the 



Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 47 

street rather than meet a woman. He certainly was a recluse in his 
habits, not social with his professional brethren, and apparently nervous 
and timid. On the Bench his manners to the memljers of the Bar were 
courteous and gentle, his voice soft and musical, but his opinions intri- 
cate and his sentences long and involved. 

fudge Grimke had a decided taste for literary pursuits and general 
reading, and in the year 1848, not long before his death, published a 
pamphlet, which received very considerable public attention, and was 
entitled " The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions." 

PETER HITCHCOCK. 

Of those who in the earlier history of this Valley held terms of the 
Sujireme Court in its several counties, no one occupies a larger space in 
the judicial history of the State than Peter Hitchcock. He was a 
native of Connecticut, and received both his classical and professional 
education at Yale. He came into this State about the year 1806, and 
settled at Burton, in Geauga County, and engaged in his frofession. 

In the year 1819, he was first promoted to the Supreme Bench, and 
subsequently at three different periods re-elected ; he served in all 28 
years as Judge of that Court, and retired from service when the Con- 
stitution of 1851 reorganized the judicial tribunals of the State. He 
was then 70 years old, but in ability for work as efficient as he had ever 
been. 

It is fair to say that no one of the able and learned Judges who have 
at different times presided in the Supreme Court of this State, has done 
so much to systematize and mould our judiciary, giving it dignity and 
respectability, as this learned Judge. 

It was not until the year 1831 that any provision was made for the 
holding of a term of the Supreme Court in Bank. Previous to that 
time the disposition of all legal questions was made by the highest tri- 
bunal of the State, as it traveled over the State, and no report of its 
decisions reached the public ear, except, possibly, but rarely, through the 
local newspapers. Judge Hitchcock, with liurnet, Sherman, and others 
even then prepared very elaborate opinions sometimes in cases of great 
importance, which were afterwards embodied in the reports of that 
tribunal. 

One of the valuable features in Judge Hitchcock's decisions is this, 
that he discerns the leading question in the case, exhausts the learning 
of the books mainly on that, but pursues his logical course of thought to 
the end. He does not hesitate to fortify himself with authority, but it 
is carefully selected and never redundant. He was physically and in- 
tellectually a man of large capacity. None of our Judges were so 
laborious, so indefatigable in finishing the work of the circuit. If he did 



48 Maumee Valley Pioneer Associatio7i. 

not clear up a docket, it was because the thing couldn't be done. He 
tiaveled his circuit generally on horseback or his own Yankee wagon, 
for neither railroads nor stage coaches were known in his earlier judicial 
labors. He would reach a county seat by noon or later, and the very 
first place he made for, would be the Clerk's office. All the chancery 
cases and demurrers, or other papers for the Court, would be in his 
room and generally settled by the time Court was open the next morn- 
ing. He did not refuse to hear argument, but unless it was quite an 
important case, or the Judge intimated a desire to hear argument, the 
members of the Bar were (juite apt to submit ui)on his own examina- 
tions. In giving his decisions he was a model for judicial bearing and 
address. His retentive memory would enable him to recite the facts 
as developed in the pleadings, and with clear and full, but never re- 
dundant expressions, he would analyze and decide at once with no 
doubtful meaning; and unless a jury trial should occupy the Court, 
it was seldom that the business was not disposed of in a day. 

He was off the Bench for a few years, between 1842-45, and rode 
round the northern counties for practice. But he was not so successful 
here. His judicial training unfitted him lor the contest:, at the Bar. 
His bearing too on the Bench was curt, oftentimes offensive, but not 
despotic. But take him all in all, I think cotemporaries would assign 
him the first place in the list of the judicial talent of Ohio. His full 
length portrait now adorns the walls of the Supreme Court room at 
Columbus. 

The very first term of the l.ucas Common Pleas was in the month 
of September, 1835, ^^ appears from the records, at which Jona- 
than H. Jerome, Baxter Bowman and William Willson, were the asso- 
ciate Justices holding Court. No action was taken other than the ap- 
pointment of Commissioners, and some other merely ministerial duties 
at that time devoting on the Judges, and Court adjourned at a very 
early hour. 

In fact the Judges being convinced of the value of the maxim 
^'' Inter Anna Silent Leges." took good care to meet at an earlier hour 
than (ien. Brown was at that lime in the habit of marching his army up 
and down the Maumee, and so they escaped the interruption of the 
soldiery, and possibly the capture of the entire tribunal. 

JUDGE HIGGINS. 

The next term of the Court was held in the month of April, 1836, 
and the records show that Hon. IX Higgins and the same associate 
Judges constituted the Court. This Court appointed A. Coffinberry, 
Prosecuting Attorney, but no other business of importance was trans- 
acted. 



Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 49 

Of the earlier members of the Bench in this County. I will give my 
impressions of the dead, rather than to speak of the living, who still re- 
main, and are still part and parcel of our ancient fraternity. 

The Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the North- 
west at the time of my coming to this part of the State, was David Hig- 
gins, who was elected in the year 1830, and had a district embracing 
sixteen of the present organized counties of the State, including the old 
counties of Delaware, Richland and Huron. His labors were arduous 
and excessive, and his salary was not over $1,000 or 1,200 per annum. 

He was a man of robust frame, but in going over his circuit was 
thrown from a wagon in which he had been traveling, and so severely 
injured that one of his limbs was required to be amputated. 

Judge Higgins was of old Connecticut stock; he had a fine classical 
education, and was a good lawyer. At the time of his election to the 
Bench, he was a resident of Norwalk, and was in partnership with James 
Williams, one of the oldest and most brilliant of the early advocates of 
that Bar, but when Higgins was elected to the Bench there were rumors 
of some unfairness, which made the Bar of that County oppose him- 
His manners on the Bench were characterized by judicial austerities, a 
good deal more than amenities, but his rulings were impartial and his 
judgment sound, and his legal knowledge very considerable. While 
holding himself in distant and peremptory style at or from the practi- 
tioners belore him, he often became entangled in absurd debates. A 
favorite expression was this, " The Court will hold no collocjuium with 
members of the P.ar." But he would nevertheless be teased into quite 
undignified collotpiiums. "Mr. Hopkins," said he to Maj. Hopkins, of 
Milan, one day after Philip was vainly attempting to elucidate some- 
thing, "haven't you anything new to offer the Court.'" "May it 
please your Honor, in my opinion, a few old ideas won't hurt the 
Court," replied the Major. The severest ordeal Judge Higgins had to 
go through, was in a contest with Orris Parrish at the Huron County 
Bar. It arose in a criminal case, and Orris was carrying himself with a 
pretty high hand, as nobody knew better than he how to do that same 
thing. In the course of the proceedings, toward evening, one of the 
worst of the altercations took place between them, and in a moment, of 
mad anger, the Judge ordered the attorney to be imprisoned over night 
in the jail, for contempt of Court. He would gladly have recalled his 
order an hour after, for almost the whole Bar marched with the pris- 
oner to duress, and that night the jail of Huron County had a high old 
carnival, such as it never before or since exi)erienced. 

The Judge afterwards, in 1837, was succeeded by Ozias Bowen, of 
Marion, who was elected in his stead. But he continued to practice in 
the same circuit with great energy and success, until in the year 1845 



50 Maumee Valley Pioneer Association. 

or '46, he obtained a comfortable berth in the Treasury Department at 
Washington, which he was permitted to occupy amid all the changes of 
politics, until a few years ago, after the age of 80 years, he was called to 
his rest. 

The first term of the Court at which the above named firm of Tilden 
& Osborn attended in Toledo as practitioners, was in the spring of the 
year 1838. The Court was held in the third story of a block just above 
Monroe street, in a long, uncarpeted, noisy and dusty room.. Judge 
Bowen had been elected the winter previous, and now presided, with 
Judges Jerome, James Wolcott and John Berdan, as associate Judges, 
the last two having also been elected at the same session of the Legis- 
lature. 

LUCAS COUNTY BAR. 

The house was crowded with attorneys, cpiite as thickly in propor- 
tion as the visitors will find in these days by looking in our Court room 
of a Monday morning. But there is this difference. Then the attor- 
neys from abroad had as large a place in the business as the resident 
practitioners. 

Our resident attorneys at that time were Messrs. Wav & 
Cook, E. D. Potter, John Fitch, C. F. Abbott, D. O. Morton, Ed- 
son Allen, Lownsbury and Pierre M. Irving, of the Toledo Bar; and from 
Maumee, Samuel M. Young, Nath. Rathbun and Daniel F. Cook. 

Of the attorneys who were present from counties other than Eucas 
at this and succeeding terms, the following names are remembered, viz. : 

From Perrysburg — John C. Spink, Henry Bennett, H. L. Hosmer, 
Williard V. Vv'ay, H. C. Stowell and Samuel Campbell; Fremont — 
Ralph P. Buckland; Sandusky— E. B. Sadler; Norwalk— C. E. Boalt 
and D. Higgins. 

Besides these, the following gentlemen from more distant places, 
were attending our Courts at that period, viz. : 

James Purdy, A. Coffinbury, John M. May, of Mansfield; N. H. 
Swayne, of Columbus ; Brown, of Mt. Vernon ; \V. Wing and McClel- 
land, ot Monroe, Mich. 

One of the most prominent of the citizens of Toledo, as he had been 
in many previous years of the Northwest, was Major Benjamin F. Stick- 
ney. During the unsettled condition of the boundary question, Major 
Stickney had committed some offense against the Sovereignty of Mich- 
igan, he himself reported it, to have been for acting as judge of an elec- 
tion on the disputed territory. He was taken by a posse under the 
Sheriff's direction, dragged through the streets of Monroe as a crimi- 
nal, and incarcerated in the common jail. Here, after ignominious im- 
prisonment, without food for more than 14 hours, as he piteously com- 
plained to Gov. Eucas, without food or refreshment he was let out on 



Mauuicc I'a/icy Pioiiccr .■Issociation. 51 

bail, to make his appearance at the next term of Court in Monroe. It 
is needless to say that the Major did not api)ear, and in consequence 
his recognizances were forfeited, and his sureties called upon to answer 
for the amount of their bonds. Judgment having been obtained, they 
commenced i)roceedings against him, and the case was for trial at this 
term of the Common Pleas. Messrs. Brown &: Fitch were for the 

plaintiffs, and for Major Stickney. The Court gave judgment 

against the defendant for the full amount of his liability. The case was 
appealed to the next term of the Supreme Court, and the judgment 
affirmed. 

Major Stickney afterwards presented his claim to the Legislature 
for an ap]jropriation to pay this debt, based upon the ground that it had 
been incurred in a vicarious kind of performance, at the time he was 
representing the Sovereignty of Ohio against the usurpations of the 
people known in parlance as the Wolverines. But the Legislature was 
deaf to his appeals for redress. 

JUDGE OZIAS P.OWEN'. 

Judge Ozias Bowen, presiding Judge, was a resident of the town of 
Marion. His circuit, the same over which Judge Higgins had pre- 
sided, included fourteen counties. It was an exceedingly laborious 
circuit, and had mostly to be traveled over on horseback, or in case the 
roads were smooth, in light wagons. Not much time was left for the 
study of cases or for professional reading. His circuit was, however, 
divided in the following winter, leaving less and more compact terri- 
tory, and more easily traveled. He continued some years on the Com- 
mon Pleas Bench, and after the Constitution of 1851 went into opera- 
tion, he was elected and served one term" as a Judge of the Supreme 
Court. 

Judge Bowen is one of our best illustrations of a self-made man. He 
had a good common education, a plodding rather than active intellect, 
but he was of strong physical frame, and endurance of a resolute and 
unyielding purpose, and was a most faithful and laborious student. Of 
affable and social manners, never impatient and never abrupt, deciding 
his cases with an air of deference to the attorney he was possibly 
slaughtering; he was beloved by the Bar, and especially the younger 
members, as to whose crudities and imjierfections he was as tolerant 
and courteous as to the older members of the profession. He was 
neither an easy speaker nor ready writer, his voice was not strong, and 
his manner hesitating; but his grasp of the subject was decisive, and if 
his decisions on the Supreme Bench be examined, they will be found to 
have been cirefully studied, freighted with weighty words and severe 
4 



52 Maunice Valley Pioneer Association. 

logic. He was impartial to the Bar, studious to do justice to liti- 
gants, and without fear or favor in the administration of his duty. 

WAV .-XND COOK. 

The most effective and eloquent advocate at our Bar at that j)eriod 
was George B. Way. He had enjoyed the opportunities of a good edu- 
cation, was refined in his expressions, and fluent in speech. Of some- 
what tall and slender frame, dark color and straight black hair, liis ap- 
pearance was graceful and attractive. But he was indolent, studied law 
books less than Dickens or 'I'hackeray, _and thoroughlv detested the 
drudgery ot the practice. When, however, was fully aroused before a 
jury, or on the stump, he would pour foith a flood of silvery eloquence that 
would carry his hearers iiresistibly with him. His partner, Richard 
Cook, on the contrary, loved the logic of his profession, was more carried 
away with the subleties of its abstractions than any of the facts or 
romance of his cases. He would sit for hours if he could find a listener 
to follow the mazes of his metaphysics and elaborate subtleties. The 
burden of the office and its labor mainly devolved upon him, and he 
had in him the elements of one of the best lawyers of the Valley ; had 
not evil associations and habits cast their shade over him before it was 
noon. 

C. F. ABBOTT. 

C. F. Abbott was then a }oung man from Massachusetts, a graduate 
of Harvard, and intensely prejudiced for everything Websterian, 
Bostonian and Eastern, The first exhibition of this feeling was at this 
very term, when a political meeting being called to appoint delegates 
either to a State or County Convention, the question was mooted as to 
the man we should support for President, viz. : Harrison or Clay. There 
w^as an excited discussion, in which Abbott took a leading part in favor 
of Clay, and putting the enquiry with some scorn, as other partisans did 
long after, " Who is this Gen. Harrison "i " Gen. Harrison was never- 
theless nominated, and Abbott became his enthusiastic supporter. 

Mr. Abbott was not an attractive speaker, had little imagination or 
poetry in his thoughts, but was a good, industrious and i)ains-taking 
lawyer; and by his industry, acquired a large practice. 

DANIEL O. MORTON. 

Daniel O. Morton is too well known that I should b^ expected to 
dwell on his characteristics. He was prominently an intense partisan ; 
was industrious, laithful to his ])rofessional work, laborious and studious, 
a party organizer and ambitious of political honors, and not only . suc- 
cessful in establishing a very large and |)rofitable business, but rose to 



Afaunicc Valley Pioticer Association. 53 

positions of public honor and trust. Morton had a commanding form, 
over six feet in his stockings; a clear, fluent and imposing mode of ad- 
dress, and of such pleasant and social manners as to give him a large 
influence with courts and juries, and esi^ecially in his owa political 
party. 

In the spring of 1839, having business, especially collections at dif- 
ferent points on the river, I joined the members of the Bar who went 
out upon the circuit, and turned my face towards the county seat of 
Henry County. Beside Judge Potter, our company consisted of May, 
Young, Cofifinbury, Higgins, Stowell, ^^'ay, of Toledo, Way, of Perrys- 
burg, and possibly Purdy, Boalt and Major Hopkins. 

HENRV COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 

I had been prepared for the rudest kind of frontier judicial institutions, 
but when I reached Napoleon, put up my horse at Leonard's, about 3 
o'clock in the afternoon, I was quite surprised to find this August Tri- 
bunal in the upper story of a log-house tavern. I mounted the stairs lead- 
ing on the outside to Court room. 1 saw on a long, low bench, that most 
respectable tribunal known as " Gentlemen of the Jury," with Count 
Coffinbury close in front, sawing the air with his right arm in defense 
of one of the sovereigns who had appropriated ten very small hogs, the 
property of another one. The Count closed, and the Prosecuting Attor- 
ney — his name was Barry — stood up for his client the State of Ohio. 
What Barry lacked in English grammar, he made up in wind and gyra- 
tion. The floor of the Court room was not so very tight, but the noise 
of grinding coffee and the hissing of ham and eggs indicated the evening 
repast and the hour of recess. 

JUDGE E. D. POTIER 

In the winter of 1838-9, the Legislature made a new Judicial Circuit, 
composed often of the Northwestern counties, inclusive of Lucas and 
^Vood. E. D. Potter, before that time, Post Master at Toledo, was 
elected to the Bench. Few lawyers refuse to wear the ermine at some per- 
iod of their lives. The position of Judge Potter had been one of ease and 
independence compared with that to which he was called. But with an 
honorable ambition in his profession, and with the cordial concurrence 
of his associates at the ]»ar, he esteemed it a duty to himself and to his 
brethren that he should accept the position. He is still living, hale and 
hearty, and I have no intention of describing any of his characteristics 
than this : He was a pronounced Democrat, a skillful jiartisan when 
in the field ; but on the Bench, impartial and inflexible in his convic- 
tions of the right, holding the scales between counsel and litigants 
with as even hand as the blind-fold goddess could demand. 



54 Maiiince Valley Pioneer Assoeiation. 

The Toledo Bar attended very regularly in those days the courts of 
Wood County, and in the years 1838 and 1839 I was among them. 

WOOD COUNTY r.AR. 

The Court House in Perrysburg was a modest frame building of suf- 
ficient capacity for the ordinary transactions of business, but when some 
extraordinary case brought witnesses and spectators within its walls, it 
was small and exceedingly uncomfortable. 

Of the resident attorneys of that period who have departed from 
these scenes of their labor, I more distinctly remember John C. Spink, 
Willard V. Way, Hezekiah L. Hosmer, H. C. Stowell, Henry Bennett 
and Samuel B. Campbell. 

JOHN C. SPINK. 

Mr. Spink was the oldest and most prominent resident member of 
the Bar in the Valley, and had a very large circle of friends and clients. 
He was never a student in the usual acceptation of the term ; he had no 
order or system in the management of his office, and was restive under 
the restraints of office life. But in the Court room he was prompt and 
eager for the fray; he detected the strong points, whether of the law or 
facts in the case, and dashed upon his opponent with energy and vigor. 
These qualities gave him great popularity among the people. In wit 
and repartee, he was quick, and always carried about with him a fund 
of humor not quiet, but boisterous and rather gross, yet always good 
natured. He was fluent in speech, and ingenious in argument, whether 
to the Court or before the jury, and was a successful lawyer. 

WlLLARD v. WAV. 

Willard V. Way in almost all these qualities was the reverse of Mr. 
Spink. I first knew Mr. Way in the spring of 1834, when he, with my- 
self and one other, presented ourselves to the Supreme Court sitting in 
Jackson County for admission to the Bar. Mr. Way then intended to 
fix his abode at Perrysburg, and immediately opened his office there, 
where he continued to the close of his life, in the year 1873. 

Mr. Way had a fair and respectable knowledge of his profession when 
he started out in life, but its labors and trials in the Court room were 
not congenial to him. He was assiduous and methodical in the details 
of his office, and careful and attentive to business entrusted to him, and 
honest and honorable in his practice. But he was not ambitious to 
shine in the forum, and sought the compensation of the profession in the 
quiet and noiseless gains which its opportunities afforded him. 

After a career of unusual prosperity, he had accumulated a large and 
ample fortune, and dying childless, he committed the bulk of his prop- 



Maiimcc ] 'alley Pioneer Association. 55 

erty to the establishment of a library and reading room at Perrysburg for 
the benefit of the people amongst whom he had made his fortune. 

H. L. IIOSMER. 

Hezekiah L. Hosmer was at this time the partner of Mr. Spink, and 
as junior, had the charge of the office and its correspondence, and other 
details. He was a young man of marked characteristics as a student of 
literature as well as of the law. He was diffident, not very ready in 
speech, owing the rather to a classic taste for correct words and lan- 
guage than from want of words themselves, but of such pleasing man- 
ners and address that little doubt exists of his success as a lawyer, had 
he as devotedly clung to the common law of England as he did to its 
literature and history. He had a taste for journalism, with its studies 
and pursuits, and these habits drew him at length entirely from his pro- 
fession. He was the editor, as my information is, of the Perrysburg 
Journal, afterwards of the Maumee Express, and lastly, of the Toledo 
Blade. 

Mr. Hosmer as a writer, fluent, elegant and descriptive, has very few 
superiors. His description in his paper, the Perrysburg yw/;v/tz/, of the 
grand celebration at Fort Meigs on the iith of June, 1840, when Gen. 
Harrison, in the very precincts of his old fort, addressed 50,000 or 100,- 
000 people, was so graphic, so piquant, that it was published in every 
Whig paper of the State, and read with delight by the exultant Whigs. 

H. C. STOWELL. 

H. C. Stowell at this period had commenced his professional career at 
Perrysburg, and by courage, and torce of character, had already obtained 
a fair share of practice, and gave promise of becoming a leading lawyer 
in the County. He was very ready and fluent in speech, given to 
rhetorical flourishes, and ambitious to excel in the trial of jury causes. 
He afterwards moved over to Maumee at the time the county seat of 
Lucas County was located there. Subsequently he exchanged the 
gown for the robes of the ministry, and became a preacher of the gospel 
of peace. Whether he yet remains among the living, I have not been 
informed. 

The week following the Court at Napoleon, to which 1 have alluded, 
was the Court of Williams County, the countv seat being at Defiance. 
Mr. S. M. Young and myself traveled on horseback, while the Judge 
and the residue went up by means of a large lumber wagon, our h )st 
Leonard had provided. The season of the year, with its crimson aid 
golden-tinged leaves, the beauty of the river, and the roads cut through 
long stretches of unbroken forests, with their giant trees and impass- 
able thickets, made a lasting impression on my mind. Laborers were 
at work on different sections of the canal along which our road led us. 



56 Maiiiucc Valley Pioiicci'- Association. 

Arriving opposite Uetiance, we were ferried over the Maumee, and 
stopped at the Exchange, not a very extensive hotel, but one where 
upon emergencies people could be packed till they occupied very 
small space. ~ 

WILLIAMS COUNTV BAR. 

The Court was then held in the lower part of a two-story brick 
building, hardly 40 feet square on the ground, the upper ])art of which 
contained county oftices, beside a room occupied by attorneys. This 
modest building still stands at a small distance from the noble and costly 
public buildings which are the pride of the people, and where Justice 
now holds her court in the county, and is the most impressive comment- 
ary I find of the progress made in the 40 years which have elapsed, un- 
less we except the old log building where Leonard once presided below 
and Potter above, and which is still to be seen a temple in ruins. 

The resident lawyers of this time at Defiance were William Seamans, 
Horace Sessions and William C. Holgate. The two former of these are 
at rest. Mr. Holgate remains, but the outside prosperity of his life has 
rendered him independent of his profession as a source of livelihood, 
though he frequently appears at the 15ar. 

WILLIAM SEAMANS. 

Mr. Seamans, shortly after this time, embarked in other business, left 
Ohio for the territory of Kansas, returned again after long years to cope 
with anew generation of lawyers, and died about the year i860. 

HORACE SESSIONS. 

Horace Sessions was a man of slender, physical frame, a very close 
and accurate thinker, and one of the most methodical men I ever knew. 
He \Aas modest, amounting to timidity, venturing an opinion with seem- 
ing reluctance, but clinging to it with tenacity. 

An accident or severe sickness in childhood rendered him quite 
lame in after life. He came to Defiance a very poor boy with a 
widowed mother and sisters, in very slender if not indigent circum- 
stances. He applied himself diligently to his calling, wrote in public 
offices, taught school, and practised law. His unswerving integrity 
made him the confidant of larger and more varied trusts than usually 
belongs to men in or out of the profession. The opportunities of in- 
vesting his moderate earnings in the rapidly advancing real estate of 
the Northwestern counties, gave him in the course of a itw years not 
only a competence, but made him, in the comparison with the people 
where he lived, quite a rich man. He was appointed by the Republi- 
cans of his district as a delegate to the National Convention which met 



Maiiince \'allcy Pionco' Association. 57 

at Chicago, in the year iSCS, and on his way home while visiting a 
friend he was taken sick, and died before reaching his home. Mr. 
Sessions was a successful man in our vernacular. Whatever he 
achieved was owing to these qualities: integrity, patience, economy, 
and cool and dispassionate judgment. 

The characteristics of Coffinbury, Purdy, May, and others of these 
circuit riders, are pretty well known, but possibly our friend Philip R. 
Hopkins, is not so well known here in this \'alley of the Maumee as he 
was on the banks of the Huron and upon the Fire Lands. 

M.AjOR HOPKINS. 

At what time and where Major Hopkins began his studies, I never 
heard. He was in advanced years when I knew him, in 1836, and 
doing quite a respectable business in the flourishing village of Milan. 
He had once been a merchant, and failing in that, took to the profes- 
sion of the law. Possibly he might have understood the subtleties of 
the then system of pleading, but the more intricate abstractions he did 
not very thoroughly reach. Yet he had a good practice ; self-possessed, 
imperturbable, if defeated he was never conquered, but with good 
nature returned again to his task ; and was often successful when able 
lawyers would have been in despair. 

His quick repartee was often the source of amusement to the Bar 
and the lookers-on. On one occasion before Judge Sadler, in Erie 
Common Pleas, he had persistently objected to about every (juestion 
the opposite counsel would put to his witness. It came to the turn of 
Mr. Hopkins to produce his witnesses, and the opposite attorney was 
beginning the same system of objecting to testimony, and the usual con- 
troversy before the Court began. As he was about to comment on the 
style of the objection, Judge Saddler said, " Major, you ought to be the 
last man to complain of this." The Major instantly replied, "May it 
please your Honor, I am the very last man complaining of it." 

Some collection or other similar business brought him out to Napo- 
leon, and with the fashion of the times, he went round with the brethren 
in quest of something to do. On one occasion the Court in Henry 
County ajjpointed him to assist the Prosecuting .Attorney in the conduct 
of criminal business. A large batch of licjuor and some other kinds of 
indictments were to be found, and Philip prepared himself for a very 
careful and accurate despatch of business, by borrowing from the Prose- 
cutor of Huron County enough of his printed indictment blanks for the 
occasion. The bills were found, quite a large number of them, the 
grand jury was dismissed, and the defendants brought into Court upon 
warrants. When they were called to stand up and plead guilty or not 
guilty to the charge, what was the amazement of the Prosecutor to find 



58 Maiiniec Valley Pio7ieer Association. 

that the vejiue of every one of his bills was laid in Huron County in- 
stead of Henry. The liquor sellers escaped then, as I believe they 
have ever since in that County. 

Of the legal profession of Ohio in the earlier period, I may say in 
the first place, that it was largely composed of persons who had come 
from the older States, to grow up with the promising fortunes of this 
people. A very large number were men of education, culture and skill. 
I think this will be manifest if we take the Judges and lawyers who have 
become prominent even before the period of which I have spoken. 
In addition to the lawyers of the Scioto Valley to whom I have already 
alluded, there were Charles Hammond, Jacob Burnet, John McLean, 
Bellamy Storer, Thomas Morris, Charles R. Sherman, George Tod, 
Ethan Allen, Brown, Elijah Hayward, and a long list of others who 
had preceded the period of 1830, and had passed away or were about 
leaving the active duties of their profession. Following close upon 
these were Thomas Corwin, N. H. Swayne, Joseph Swan, P. B. Wilcox, 
Salmon P. Chase, Reuben Wood, Sherlock Q. Andrews, R. B. Ranney, 
R. B. Spaulding, John H. James, and a large list of others who mostly 
preceded the days to which my personal reminiscences extend. Take 
these names I have mentioned, illustrious in the history of the State, 
many of them of national reputation, and it will be found that a brilli- 
ant galaxy of learned and active men were not only leading, shapmg and 
elevating the practice of the law, but were making broad and lasting 
foundations for the education, morality and permanent good of the 
people. 

The multiplication of law books had not made such fearful strides as 
of late years. A hundred or two volumes at most constituted a very large 
law library. The practice of our Courts followed for a long time close 
upon the old English systems, and of course their reports, elementary 
treatises and books of practice, were the standard books of authority 
in the State. Every library had its Blackstone and Chitty — they were 
vade mecums to the profession, and often constituted the bulk of the 
attorney's elementary treatises. 

The system of special pleading, which for some centuries had fettered 
the English Courts and their practice, was at the first in full force and 
power in this State. 

This system, consisting of the Declaration, Plea Replication, Re- 
butter, Sur Rebutter, Rejoinder, and Sur Rejoinder, with its confession 
and avoidance, its puis daj-rein, its sonassault, &c., was calculated to 
protract and delay the real merits of a controversy, ^ give to ingeni- 
ous and unscrupulous lawyers a very great advantage, and to overload 
the real merits of a controversy with a vast amount of superfluous alle- 
gations and abstractions. Yet it was built upon the severest rules of 



MaiDiice Willcy Pioneer Association. 59 

logical reasoning, and the thorough study of its jirinciples and applica- 
tion of them to develop all the possible merits or demerits of the con- 
troversy, made the young student a good logician and accurate lawyer. 
There was such severe mental discipline in thoroughly mastering the 
details of special pleading, that we can have lit;le doubt that much of 
the solid learning and acumen of our early lawyers is due to this course 
of instruction. 

That it was a source of evil in the new and increasing variety of 
subjects brought before our Courts, because so apparent at an early 
day in Ohio, that the major part of its intrica:y was made inoper- 
ative by the simple provision which authorized the pleading ol the 
general issue and notice of special matter. Even then it became diffi- 
cult for our Courts to loose themselves from the trammels of this system, 
for often times it became as necessary to set out in the notice the de- 
fense with the same precision and exactness that were required in 
special pleading. 

Secondly. The general influence of the Bench and Bar was early 
and vigorously directed to the moral and intellectual cultivation of the 
people. 

The same session of the Legislature that undertook the improvement 
of the State of Ohio by means of canals, also inaugurated the system of 
our public schools, which has since attained such magnitude and be- 
come so great a part of our real prosperity. 

In the period of which I have spoken from my recollections, the 
same characteristics prevailed in the profession of this Valley. Not 
many of the lawyers were professedly religious men, but nearly every 
one of them, as far as I remember, exhibited respect towards religious 
services. Few of them were profane or given to intoxicating habits. 
The social influence prevailed very largely amongst them all. Riding 
together upon horseback or in conveyances over their circuits, some- 
times roughing it in all sorts of weather, over almost impassable roads, 
swollen rivers, remaining weeks together, and putting up with short 
commons and uncomfortable lodgings, they were by very necessity of 
the case compelled to forget their differences, and give play to the more 
rational and sensible impulses of amity and friendship. Sometimes 
the Court sat late in the evening. Generally, however, the lawyers 
congregated for social conversation, telling anecdotes, or canvassing the 
questions which arose in their practice. Cards were the more common 
modes of jiassing the evening. Now and then a pitched war of wit and 
humor would take place, and collect a crowd of interested listeners. I 
remember the skirmishes of this kind which took place between Coffin- 
berry and Hopkins. l5oth of them were sharp and incisive. The 
Count was slow measured, and so, unexpectedly, hit his opponent as to 



6o Mainnce Valley Pioneer Assoeiation. 

create a general row. Hopkins, with keen eyes and Yankee accent, 
would in an instant parry the stroke, and turn the laugh upon his opr 
ponent. 

Generally once at a term some brush would take i)Iace, between 
these brethren, either by the contrivance of members of the Bar, or of 
their own predispositions. They at length degenerated to personal 
descriptions of each other, and of the probable physical or mental 
infirmities which attached to the other. 

But they never once, that I know of, went beyond the bounds of 
good nature, and were probably friends to the last. Both of them now, 
with the large company of others, whose voices once filled the Court 
rooms to the delight of clients, and sometimes rang out in the woods 
along this river for their own, are now at rest. 

Pieyond the parting and the meeting. 
Beyond this pulses fever beating. 

They no longer dread the uncertain verdict of the twelve honest men, 
nor are they confounded by the judicial decision of the one learned man. 

Mr. Osborn's address was followed by the '* Champagne Song," by 
the Arion Chorus. 

MR. C. WAGOONER's ADDRESS. 

The third sentiment was given by the Vice President, " The Pioneer 
Press of the Maumee Valley." Response by Mr. Clark Waggoner. 

Mr. Waggoner made characteristic remarks, forcible, brief, and to 
the point. His first acquaintance with the Press of the Maumee Val- 
ley, w'as with The Miami of tJie Lakes, published by Jessup W. Scott, in 
i834-'5. The next paper was the Maumee Express, established about 
1838, and edited when he first saw it by Henry Reed, then Henry 
Reed, Jr. Mr. R. was noted, and widely (juoted, for his keen retorts, 
and his bright witticisms. The Toledo Gazette, and the -^^Az^/i? followed, 
the former of but short duration. The latter crowded it out. It was 
founded and named by J. R. Williams, whose successor was A. W. Fair- 
banks, of the Cleveland Ho-ald. The Manhattan Advertiser was started 
after the /^A/^/t', by Charles T. Smeed, but was short lived, when it 
began to appear that the " Future Great " would not have its center at 
Manhattan. The early press was intensely local. A characteristic was 
its fidelity to the interest of the paper's own town. Thus, read a Per- 
rysburg paper, Perrysburg was a delightfully healthy place, and Mau- 
mee had all the ague, Maumee took the sanitary glory all to itself, leav- 
ing its neighbors all the ill reputation of being unhealthy. It was gen- 
erally impossible to find in the paper of one town anything of service to 
another. Read each paper separately, and you would think there was 
no sickness anywhere. It was a time of great trial. Smeed, of the 



Mauvice Valley Pioneer Association. 6i 

Manhattan Advertiser, obtained emijloyment one winter, as printer on 
the Ohio Statesman. He wrote back from Columbus he had a full job 
of type setting, and if he could keep it all winter he would try and keep 
the Advertiser running the next season. 

'WiO. Mattmee River Times succeeded the Gazette (Maumee) for a 
brief time, named so as to accommodate both Perrysburg and J.Iaumee. 
One side was a Perrysburg, and the other a Maumee paper, and often in 
the same sheet there were changes and statements as to the health, ^:c., of 
each place, which made funny reading to a stranger. 

Mr. Waggoner paid the Press a high compliment. In early days it 
was true, it was elevated, it was faithful. It is so to-day, and he made 
just the vaguest hint that the Press had been better than its support. 
He closed with this exhortation : " If you want a good paper, support a 
good paper. If you don't want a bad press, withdraw your support 
from it. If a good paper goes down, it is because a community is not 
prepared to sustain it." 

After which the Arions sang "Banish Oh Maiden." 

The fourth regular toast, " Peter Navarre," was given by the Vice 
President, and responded toby Charles Kent, Esq. 

Mr. President : 

While pioneers of one origin are recalling the events of their early 
settlement, and reviving reminiscences of their own personal experi- 
ences, it is not unfitting to be reminded of the still earlier pioneers of 
European race who first settled in our Valley. We must not judge of 
these hardy men by the remnant still left about our bays and marshes and 
looked upon and named with too much contempt. We must remember 
that it was this people who first explored this North American conti- 
nent from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Rocky Mountains, and from 
the Lakes to the Southern Gulf. From them are named our lakes and 
rivers, which they traversed as zealous missionaries of their religion, 
enduring hardships exceeded by none suffered in the same cause else- 
where or at any time; or as hardy traders they threaded every channel 
of water communication of this vast continent, in pursuit of the only 
merchandise then known to exist among its inhabitants. Nowhere 
west of Montreal were their numbers sufficient to leave a controlling in- 
fluence upon the future (jf this great country ; but had they been suffi- 
ciently strong to have occupied the whole country, instead of the scat- 
tered villages on the streams; had they not succumbed to what we 
boastfully call a stronger race, what a different civilization would have 
been developed in this country of ours ! They were a people of seem- 
ing contradictions in character. As light hearted and gay, as careless 
and improvident as Mere their fathers in bright and sunny France, yet 



62 Ma2ii)ice Valley Pioneer Association. 

toughened by tlie vigors of a Canadian climate, until their powers of 
endurance were equal to those of any of the Northern tribes, that in all 
history have come down upon and conquered, the more civilized South- 
rons. To-day, as I have seen on the lower St. Lawrence, these " habi- 
tans," in a climate and on a soil that would tax the utmost of human 
strength for a simple existence, are just as social, gay and careless, as 
though their soil and climate gave spontaneously all that life needed, 
and yet these same people, like their ponies, will astonish us by their 
powers of endurance on so small a supply of physical support. 

These same seeming contradictions made the character of those 
early adventures, and the exploits of these coureiirs des bois, these 
runners of the woods, are worthy of remembrance, as of the fore-runners of 
civilization, if they themselves did not lend to it any contributions. 

Of this stock was Peter Navarre, and it is because he was a repre- 
sentative man, and the last among us of his class that I have so spoken 
of his origin. He was born in 1785, at Detroit, where his father before 
him, and perhaps his g^randfather, had been born. In 1807, Peter, at the 
age of 22, and his elder brother Robert, erected their cabin near the 
mouth of the Maumee, on the East side, and in that neighborhood he 
continued his residence until his death. What had been young Peter's 
education up to this time } What schools had he attended, and for 
what position in life had he been fitted } These questions are soon 
answered. He was linguist enough to speak his native French after 
the Canadian dialect, and to speak well the Pottowottomy, besides 
enough of one or two other Indian languages to get along either in 
trade or travel, although he could neither read nor write even his 
French, such as it was. He understood the science of woodcraft, 
although he knew nothing cf mathematical instruments, but his w^as 
practical knowledge, such, probabably, as mathematician could never 
learn. His study of men had been such that in after life it stood him 
in good stead; for when disguised as an Indian, he knew so vi-ell how to 
play his part that Indians themselves were deceived. 

But one thing he had equal to any man I ever knew — the bearing of 
a gentleman, and one could not be five minutes with liim without notic- 
ing it. Whether it was natural or inherited, or whetlier he had some 
early training, which we do not know, this is true that during his whole 
life he was a gentleman of gentlemen not in his bearing only, but in his 
feelings and his whole conduct. 

Thus educated and supplied with a capital which he could always 
take with him, young Peter was ready to commence business. From 
1807, for four successive wint-^rs he, in the employment of some house 
in Detroit, wintered with the Miamis near Fort Wayne, buying furs, 
which in the si)ring he took by canoes to Detroit. Strange that this 



Maiiiiicc Valley Pioneer Association, 6 



v> 



was the chief if not the only commerce between the Wabash and the 
lakes ; but such as it was, Peter got his share, and after the manner of 
his kind, he was prosperous enough to be contented and happy. 

\\'hile pursuing his occupation in Indiana, he became acquainted 
with the celebrated Miami Chief, Little Turtle, and was his guest dur- 
ing the last winter he was there. In the fall before Peter died, for pro- 
fessional purposes, I wished some information concerning the descend- 
ants of the old Chief, and went to Peter for it. I found him in a mis- 
erable shanty among the bayous and marsl>es of Cedar Point. He was 
sitting alone, sick and. totally blind, shivering over the remnant of an 
old stove, which scarcely held fire enough to counteract the chilly No- 
vember wind. I spoke to him, and knowing my voice, he appeared 
gratified at my visit. I soon said to him, " Uncle Peter, I wish to know 
if you ever knew the old Miami Chief, Little Turtle? " He brightened 
up at the name, as though pleasant recollections came to him, and said, 
quickly, "What, Little Turtle, t/ie great Indian ? I knew him well — he 
was a gentleman." AVithout knowing it, he repeated the characteristic 
given the old Chief by Volney the celebrated French traveler, but I 
relate the incident because it shows not only the character of the man 
enquired about, but illustrates the enduring friendship of Peter, which 
indeed often toward others, I found to be a leading trait of him. One 
of these winters while at Fort Wayne, a deep snow fell. The com- 
mandant of the military post there wished to send dispatches to Fort 
Defiance. To you I need not say there was no way to do it but on 
foot. The commandant, to save detailing for this arduous service, 
called for a volunteer. No soldier seemed willing to undertake it- 
Young Peter Navarre, who stood by, said, " I will go ; " and so he did 
go ; and sixty years afterwards the old man in relating the exploit, would 
say that with one exception it was the hardest time he ever had, and 
would add with justifiable pride, "but I did it." 

The war of 1S12 put an end to these business engagements, and he 
never afterwards went to the State of Indiana. 

No men were more loyally attached to their government than the 
Canadian French on this border during that war, and none of them 
more forward in offering their service than the Navarres ; four brothers 
of them — Robert, Peter, Alexis and Jaquot, or James. They went to 
Detroit to offer their service to Gen. Hull. While there Peter accom- 
panied a delegation of his old friends, the Miamis, to offer their services 
to the government. When 89 years of age the old Veteran when asked 
by me in taking his deposition, which side in the war the Miamis took, 
said with indignant vehemence in relating the incident: "I, Peter 
Navarre, and my brother Robert, with our own ears heard Gen. Hull 
say, ' No ! go home and keep (piiet.' " Peter had expected that their 



64 Mauuicc Valley Plonec7' Association. 

offer would be accepted, as he very well knew that they were of the 
kind not to keep ([uiet, and they did not, but took the British side. 

On their way back to Detroit from raising a company of their 
neighbors about Maumee Bay and the Raisin, the Navarres found that 
Hull had surrendered, and they were claimed as prisoners and paroled. 

Peter always with scorn repelled the idea that he ever violated a 
parol. He was too true a man to have done so had he supposed it to 
be binding upon him, but his claim was that he was not in the military 
service, and they had no right to parol him. Gen. Proctor afterwards 
kept a standing offer of a reward for his head or scalp. Of course, at 
the approach of Harrison's army, Navarre was among the foremost to 
offer his services. They were accepted, and as a scout for Gen. Har- 
rison he remained and acted till the close of the war. After the battle 
of the Thames, he it was who first recognized the body of the slain 
Tecumseh. 

T have not the time to relate all that I myself have heard the old man 
relate as to his adventures. He said no Indian could recognize him 
unless he was personally acquainted. He knew their languages and 
could so imitate .their manners that to themselves even he was an 
Indian. 

He was 72 years of age when I became acquainted with him, but by 
accident my introduction was such that I had his confidence. He was 
fond of relating his early experience, but before strangers he was re- 
ticent. The worst night he ever spent in his life, he used to say, was in 
going from Fort Meigs to Lower Sandusky. Gen. Harrison sent for 
him, and asked him if he thought he could take a dispatch to Fort 
Stephenson. "I will try this night," was his answer. "But there is a 
terrible thunder shower," said the General. '"All the better for my 
purpose," replied I'eter; "it will help me get through the Indians." The 
next morning that dispatch was delivered at Fort Stephenson, and the 
morning after that Gen. Harrison had the answer to it. Those who 
hear me know what it took to accomplish that. I justify the old man 
who, when he would relate this exploit, would put on a glow of pride 
and straighten himself up to his full dignity — and he had more of it in 
his bearing than any man I ever knew. 

Here then was a soldier who never commanded even a squad of 
men, he planned no campaign, in fact he did nothing such as will be re- 
lated in history to make him a hero. Yet who shall say that his service 
is not entitled to praise equal to its value — etiual to the courage and 
endurance, to say nothing of the tact and mental qualifications required 
to perform it ? Many an officer, whom history will name, could have 
better been spared from that army than this poor, illiterate Frenchman. 



J\fau?ncc J 'alley Pioneer Association. 65 

That he had become ^varmly attached to his General, was evident 
from his emotion whenever he heard him named. 

His country neglected him, and although poor, he never com- 
plained. Only within three or four of his last years did he receive a 
pension, because his name was on no enlistment roll. 

After the war he returned to his i^lace near the mouth of the River, 
in the neighborhood of which he continued to reside until his death, 
although he never settled down to agriculture, or to anything that men 
of our like call business. Most of us in his latter years have known him, 
and we shall not soon forget the tall and erect form of the octogenarian 
as he often ajipeared in the streets of our city, respected by all that 
knew him. He died, as he had lived, landless and poor, and was prop- 
erly buried at the expense of your Society. 

His virtues may ha\ e been those of his class, and doubtless many of 
iheni were, but in degree so intensified that it made him a representative 
man, and it is as such that I pay him this tribute, as probably the last 
of that class we shall have within our bounds. 

As to his vices, if he ever had any, I have never heard of them ; 
unless we call a vice the utter inadaptability of the old voyageur to any 
kind of settled work recognized by thrifty people. 

When on tliat bleak day of March, 1875, Ave placed his remains in 
the grave, the earth of Toledo held those of no truer patriot, no more 
faithful friend nor nobler gentleman by nature, than PIERRE 
NAVARRE. 

Song by the Arions, " Under the Tree Tops is Rest." 

The fifth sentiment, '"' The Early Indian Missions," was then res- 
ponded to by Elder Gavitt. 

Mr. Gavitt denied that he was as old in years as some seemed to 
believe, though he was in experience and knowledge of frontier life. He 
came to Toledo in 1827, on his way from Fremont to Detroit. There 
were "only five houses in the place, and they were not here, but further 
down the river." There were no bridges, no roads but Indian trails. 

Mrs. Gen. Hunt, he says, was among the first to receive him. She 
was a noble wife and mother, and the main-stay of the Methodist 
church in the early days. The speaker expressed himself as under 
many personal obligations to her for her kindness and generosity. He 
recalled the kindnesses of others of the Maumee \'alley — the Whitings, 
Uishops, Hubbards and Father Jackson. 

The first mission in this jjart of the country, l'i)per Sandusky, estab- 
lished 1832, was the work of a colored man, John Stevenson, of Mari- 
etta. The missionary labors of Elder Gavitt began at Upper San- 
dusky, and extended through \\hite Rock, across to C'anada, and down 



66 Maiimee Valley Pioneer Associatioji. 

through the Northwest Territory via the Mississippi to Fort Wayne, 
Defiance, and back to Maumee. 

He lived seven years exclusively among the Indians; knows thor- 
oughly the sacks (Sioux) and Foxes ; has entertained Black Hawk 
many times at his table ; and is prepared to bear the highest testimony 
to the fidelity and worth of the native Indian, the Indian as he was, un- 
contaminated by cheating traders and the baleful poisons of "fire- 
water " and its attendant deviltries. Elder Gavitt was from a child 
conversant with the Indian character, his father keeping a public house, 
the only one in fifty miles, in Licking County, many Indians stopping 
with him constantly. These were the Wyandottes, Deiawares and 
Shawnee?, and he represents them as honest, faithful and industrious, 
and while never forgetting an injury, at the same time never failing to 
return a friendly art. The Indian "is as true as steel." "Be faithful, 
and he'll be faithful." As an illustration of Indian gratitude, he told 
how his two brothers were given over to the Indians at Hull's surren- 
der at Detroit ; how for months they were supposed to be dead ; how 
" Capt. Jo," an Indian who had received favors from the elder Gavitt, 
took them under his protection ; how he brought them to within nine 
miles of their home by a circuitous route through the N. W. Territory; 
and when they believed they were to be shot, released them, saying, " Go 
home, you are the sons of the man who has kept us on his floor — the 
sons of the short, fat man with the little gun." 

The Elder gave an account of his missionary tours to -Canada, ac- 
companied by five or ten friendly Indians ; how they would swim the 
streams, cross the lake in bark canoes; how he was once storm-driven 
on North Bass and obliged to remain there three or four days, living on 
roasted turtle eggs, not one living soul on all the Islands to whom he 
might apply. Of the families in the Maumee Valley to whom he felt 
indebted for kindnesses, the Elder mentioned the Prays, of Waterville, 
the Banks, Keplers, Van Tassels, and Mr, Howard, who acted as Indian 
interpreter, and made himself useful in many ways. We learn that this 
was the father of Col. N. M. Howard, and that later in life he was 
Justice of the Peace, and a very benevolent and actively influential man. 

After passing a vote of thanks to the Arion Society for the excellent 
service rendered, the Association adjourned. 

The male chorus of the Arion Musical Society was composed of the 
following named gentlemen : 

First Tenors— \Nm. H. H. Smith, Leader, and Alfred W. Gleasox. 

Second Tenors — Charles S. Bassett and Charles H. Pixley, 

First Bass — Hartwell Osborn and George B. Brown. 

Second Bass — James S. Cooper, Wm. H. Currier, and A. E. Lang, 

T. DuNLAP, Secretary. 



NAMES UF MEMBERS 

OF THE 

MAUM[E urn PION[[R UNO HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 

And the Dates of their Settlement in the West. 



M. Arrowsmith, of Defiance Co.,.. Oct. 17 

George Allen, May i 

Mrs. H. B. Andrews, Wood Co , 



Samuel Andrews, I'oledo, — May 

J. C. Allen, South Toledo. ...Mar. 10 

Henry Bennett, of Toledo, came to Perr\sburg, Sep. 9 

\. D. Blinn, Perrysburg, dec'd, ...Feb. 23 

.Mavor Brigham, Toledo, May 25 

Calvin K. Bennett, Toledo, Nov. 15 

J. R. Bond, Toledo, ..Oct. 12 

John Bates, Perrysburg, dec'd,. May 10 

Amasa Bishop, Lucas Co., dec'd, ^ Oct. i 

Frederick Bissell, Toledo, dec'd, Aug. 

A. A. Belknap, 



Andrew Bloomfield, Perrysburg, May 5 

Gilbert Beach, Perrysburg, dec'd, May 

B. H. Bush, Washington township, dec'd, May 

Sylvester Brown, Washington township, dec'd,.. 



A. B. Brownlee, Toledo, dec'd, Dec. 

Peter F. Berdan, Toledo,. Apr. 

Charles Ballard, Toledo, July 

Julius Brown, 



W. H. Bennett, Sep. 

Richard Bamford, Toledo, dec'd, Oct. 10 

H, R. Bernthisel, Apr. 

Abner Brown, dec'd,. . June 

C. C. FJaird, Wood Co., 

D. Barns, 



Samuel Blanchard, West Toledo, . June 

Robert H. Bell, Toledo, ... 

5 



'833- 
'834- 
[823. 

^835. 
^835- 
^833- 

1825. 

^835- 
1835- 
r836. 
,832. 
[824. 

'835- 
t834. 

'833- 
'835- 
[834. 
,831. 

535- 
[836. 

'837. 
[834. 

■833- 
1838. 
[831. 
'833. 
'835- 
837. 
[834. 

847- 



68 Manuiee Valley Pioneer Association. 

A. B. Bradly, 

Delia A. Bell, Toledo, 



Wm. H. Boos, Toledo, Mar. i 

Calvin Bronson, Toledo, 



N. D. Blinn, May 4 

Milo Bashare, Toledo, Mar. 

John Berdan, Toledo, Oct. 

Robert Bloomfield, Toledo, 

Edward F. Brown, Toledo, 

C. O. Brigham, Toledo, 

W. A. Beach, Toledo, 



R. V. Boice, Toledo, Mar. i 

William Baker, Toledo, _. .- Nov. 

Matthias Boos, Toledo, Mar. 14 

Mrs. Malinda P. Brigham, Toledo, Sep. 

Stanly F. Brigham, Toledo, Dec. 

Anthony Bordeaux, Apr. 

Mrs. Dr. I. H. Bush, 

Mrs, Henry Bennett, Toledo, 

Mrs. Pamela Berdan, Toledo, 



Mrs. Eliza Blodgett, Toledo, Feb. 

H. E, Bruksicker, Toledo, Nov. 

George A. Carpenter, Toledo, dec'd, Oct. 22 

Sanford L. Collins, West Toledo, Dec. 22 

John W. Collins, West Toledo, Oct. 30 

James M. Comstock, Toledo, dec'd, Mar. 30 

Morgan L. Collins, Toledo, dec'd,- - -July 

Charles A. Crane, East Toledo, 



Asher Cook, Perrysburg, May 5 

Jeremiah C. Crane, Perrysburg, June 4 

Galusha Chase, June 26 

Thomas Corlett, Toledo, dec'd, -^ug. 

Gabriel Crane, East Toledo, Dec. 

John Consaul, East Toledo, dec'd, 

Edward Connelley, Toledo, 

Joel W. Crane, Toledo, - - 

Jairus Curtis, dec'd, - 

Jonathan Chappel, Maumee City, dec'd, 

David Creps, Perrysburg, - - . May 22 

William Crook, Sr., dec'd, - Aug. 

Carlos Colton, Monroe, Mar. 

Charles Coy, East Toledo, May 8 

Fred. J. Cole, Toledo, - ... Jan. 6 

Wm. C. Cheney, Toledo, - - Nov. 2 7 



.851. 
[847. 

^2. 

:85i. 
= 836. 
838. 
^835- 

^2. 

^845. 
[838. 

[846. 

:844. 

;7- 

:843- 
[844. 
[816. 
[836. 
^833- 
t835- 
844. 
;844. 
[840. 
t83i. 
1834. 
[836. 

1834- 
[830. 

^835- 
1827. 
1839. 
[834. 
:826. 

1837- 
[836. 

[834. 
[823. 

1833- 
t83i- 
[824. 

t835- 

[2. 

:843. 



Maiimee ] alley Pioneer Association. 



69 



C. H. Coy, Toledo, 

Abram W. Colton, Toledo, 

Albert G. Clark, Toledo, 

Mrs. Roxana Crane, Wood Co., 

Joseph G. Carr, Waynesfield township, 

W^ni. L. Cook, Perrysburg, 

Jacob Clark, Toledo, 

M. Callahan, Toledo, 

S. D. Chamberlin, Toledo, _ . 



Jacob Cranker, Toledo, June 18 

H. T. Cook, Toledo, May 24 

D. A. Collins, Toledo, Aug. 31 

M. J. Cooney, Toledo, -Jan. 27 

C. P. Cheesboro, Toledo, July 

James A. Crafts, Oct. 9 

William Corlett, Toledo,.. ..Sep. 19 

G. W. Creps, Perrysburg, June 

John A. Conway, Toledo, ..July 

Charles M . Dorr, Toledo, dec'd, __ Aug 

James Dennison, Toledo, -July 

W.J. Daniels, Toledo, -. 



Thomas Daniels, Toledo, Sep 

Joseph W. DeNeal, East Toledo, June 1 7 

Thomas Dunlap, Toledo, Sep. 6 

James Draper, Toledo, : Aug. 

S. F. Dyer, Toledo, Sep. 30 

P. H. Dowling, Toledo,. 

Mrs. Thomas Dunlap, Toledo, 

Hannah L. Demmon, Mav 23 

W. O. Ensign, 



Charles H.Eddy, Toledo, .\u£ 

Mrs. H. Eggleston, 

Robert A. Forsyth, Maumee City, dec'd, 

John Fitch, Toledo, 



William Flynn, June 23 

John Fay, dec'd, Oct. 

William Fellows,. :-.May 10 

John P. Freeman, Toledo, Nov. i 

U'. J. Finlay, Toledo, * .\ ug. 

John Faskin, Toledo, July 5 

William B. Gunn, .. Sep. 

.Monzo Godard, Toledo, . Aug. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Gilbert, South Toledo, 



[849. 

[848. 

!i8. 

[832. 

835. 
'834. 

1852. 
■832. 
:848. 

^837- 
1842. 
[849. 
1834. 
'839- 
'833- 
'837. 
^837- 
^834- 
1832. 

1837. 
1834. 
[840. 

849. 
'836. 
:839. 
.832. 
^837. 

837. 
[844. 

[844. 

816. 
[836. 
■833- 
^833- 

834. 
:835- 
[843- 
:S4S. 

[820. 

1845- 
t827. 



:o Maumce Valley Pioncej' Association. 
V. \V. Granger, Toledo, 



J. M. Gloyd, Toledo, Sep. 

Mary E. Gloyd, Toledo, Sep. i 

Nathan Gardner, 

A. W. Gleason, -. 

Isaac Hull, Maumee City, dec'd, . 



John E. Hunt, born at Ft. Wayne, Apr. 1 1 

W. C. Holgate, Defiance, . . May 

Brice Hilton, Dec. 3 

Abraham Hartman,. Oct. 

E. S. Hanks, Toledo, - Nov. 

Elijah Herrick, Swanton, 

W. R. Hull, Maumee City, 

Calvin Herrick, Toledo, 



R.A.Howard, Fulton Co., (dec'd Nov. 26, '7 2),. May 25 

N. M. Howard, Gilleard, Wood Co., Jan. 21 

Horace Hertzler, Toledo, ■ 



William Hueston, dec'd, May 

Charles W. Hill, Apr. 2 

H. L. Holloway, Toledo, May 26 

Henry Hall, Toledo, 



J. W. Horn, Nov 

J. N. Halloran, Toledo, 

Francis Hollenbeck, Perrysburg, 

P. C. Holt, South Toledo, 

Edward H. Hunter, South Toledo, 

Mrs. N. M. Howard, Toledo, 

Phillip Hoag, Toledo, 



W. T. Hall, Toledo, : Apr. i 

Charles. T. Howe, Toledo, Apr. 

M. W. Hubbell, Toledo, Oct. 18 

F. J. Holt, Toledo, Jan. 

D. Y. Howell, Toledo, ....Mays 

Arthur D. Howell, Toledo, Dec. 2 

C. B. Holloway, . 



Cecil A. Hall, . May 

Clara Harroun, 

Hezekiah L. Flosmer, 



Mrs. E. J. C. Harroun, .' .Mar. 

C. H. Harroun,. Oct. 

Charles N. Jennison, East Toledo, May 

Joseph Jones, Toledo, 

David Johnston, Toledo, . 



'843- 
[850. 

^832. 

1854. 
;8i4. 

798. 
[836. 

1823. 
:835. 

'835- 
[823. 

'833- 
1833- 
[823. 

[828. 

.836. 
836. 

1834. 

1836. 
[840. 
;842. 
:843. 
840. 

843- 
842. 
850. 
850. 
834. 
851- 
845- 
850. 
836. 
849. 

8.35- 
834- 
836. 

835. 
818. 

835- 



Maiuncc Valley Pi07iccr A ssaiation. yi 

W. H. Jones, Toledo, - l^ec, 1833. 

Solomon Johnson, Toledo, dec'd,. . '836. 

W. W. Jones, Toledo,.. --Ap^M 1849- 

Adaline Jones, Toledo, - ' ' ^3 ' • 

Anna M. Johnston, Toledo, -May 23, 1837. 

Valentine H. Ketcham, Toledo, ----July, 1836. 

Harvey Kellogg, Washington township, .May, 1837. 

Joel W. Kelsey, Toledo, ---- J"b% 1845- 

Mrs.J.W.Kelsey, Toledo,. - --^^ ^836. 

William O. Keeler, Wood Co., ' ^^2,2,- 

Mrs. Rachel .-^nn Ketcham, Toledo, - - 1835. 

Frank J. King, Toledo,- ' ";"• 

Ino. B. Ketcham ---- ----- ----^P'" ^^^l" 

J B. Ketcham, Toledo Sep. 15, iS^t^- 

1 aura B. Keyser, South Toledo,. ..- - Sep, 1835. 

MalindaKnaggs, Aug. 7, 1818. 

Charles A. King, Toledo, ....Nov., 1840. 

N M. Landis, Toledo,. ---- '^840. 

Jonathan Lundy, Nov. , 1833- 

Martin L. Leezen, Toledo, dec'd, - ' ^^39- 

Peter C. Lewis, Washington township, 1 1830. 

Pliny Lathrop, Richfield township, dec'd, — , 1834. 

L. C. Locke, Perrysburg, dec'd, ^"eb., 1835- 

P. G. Loope, dec'd, ' ^ 3°- 

•I). Lindsay, dec'd,.- ' ^^34- 

Thomas H. Teaming, Wood Co., > 1815- 

William Laughlin, Mar.2, 1846. 

F. T. Lane ---Ap''- ^°' ^^'J'- 

Mrs. Sarah B. Lindsay, ^ ' ^820. 

James Myers, Toledo, dec'd, - Apr. 17, 1836. 

Richard Mott, Toledo,. -.- • ^836. 

John J. Manor, -Sep. ^5. ^827. 

John Mosher, East Toledo, dec'd, . 

Jerome Myers, Toledo, dec'd, Sep., 1837. 

Lorenzo L. Morehouse, Waterville, dec'd,.- May, 1837. 

Joseph Mitchell ^^^V' ^^3°- 

George McKnight, Jan. i, i^. 

Patrick Murray, - - - ' • 

Ozias Merrill,- -- May 8, 1838. 

lames W. Myers, Toledo, ....Dec. i, 1848. 

Albert Moore, Toledo •. Oct. i, 1832. 

Carl August Markscheffel, May 20, 1 849- 

George W. Merrill.. --Mar. 15, 1852. 

AVilliam H. Merrett, Feb., 1838. 



72 Maitiucc Valley Pioneer Association. 

Edward M alone, -. Feb. 2: 

John A. Moore, Oct. \\ 

Nicholas Mathews, 



R. B. Mitchell, Oct. 12 

(iuido Marx, - - 



H. S. Neubert, .-- Aug. 11 

Henry Nood, 

A. H. Newcomb, Toledo, 

D. Xewton, Wood Co., 

Mrs. Eveline Newton, Wood Co., 

F. L. Nichols, Manhattan, 

Peter Navarre, Presque Isle, dec'd, 



Mars Nearing, Oct. 

C. W. Norton, . Feb. 

Jesse S. Norton, July i 

D. H. Nye, Mar. 27 

Mrs. Martha D. Norton, 



J. R. Osborn, Nov. 

Frederick Osgood, Manhattan, dec'd, 



William Prentice, East Toledo, dec'd, June 10 

P. J. Phillips, West Toledo, -- June 

George Powers, Perrysburg, dec'd, June 

John U. Pease, Sylvania, dec'd, Nov. 15 

Emery D. Potter, Toledo, Nov 

William Pratt, dec'd, --. 

i\. Printup, Sylvania, dec'd, 

Don A. Pease, Toledo, 



E. D. Peck, Perrysburg, dec'd, Jan 

S. Perrin, Perrysburg, dec'd,- Mar. 9 

George N. Parsons, dec'd, May 

B. F. Pratt, Mar. 

Edwin Phelps, Defiance, 



Alonzo D. Pelton, Toledo, Feb. 16 

James Pearson, Sep. 2 2 

Charles B. Phillips, Toledo, July 1 2 

Frederick Prentice 

Mrs. E, Perigo, 

Mrs. E. D. Peck, Perrysburg, 

W. E. Parmelee, Toledo, June 

W. E. Parmelee, Jr., Toledo,. .._ Aug. 3 

Charles Pratt, 



Louis H. Pike, - Jan. 2 

J. H. Parks, Dec. 31 

Z. C. Pheatt, 



^851. 

536. 

[847. 

'843- 
849. 

843- 

t835- 
1840. 

1850. 
[836. 

793- 
[834. 

^835- 
:855- 
[849. 
[829. 

'837. 
:836. 
:8i8. 
[825. 

:835- 
^835. 
'835- 
[818. 
[834. 

'835. 
[834. 
[838. 

^837. 
[834. 

[834. 
[850. 
[839. 
:82s. 

:848. 

[844. 
[840. 

;844. 
'833- 

1851. 
848. 
:84i. 



Alaiimee J \illey Pioneer Association. 



n 



Henry E. Teck, 

H. E. Peck, Sr., ^ Apr. 

Mrs. Sophia Palmer, 

Mrs. Amelia Perrin, 

S. A. Raymond, Toledo, -"^"g- 27 

Alonzo Rodgers, East Toledo, dec'd, Sep 

Henry Reed, Sr., Waterville, dec'd,. Oct, 

John P. Rowe, Vitnna, dec'd, 

Abraham P. Reed, Waterville, 



J. A. Robertson, - June 3 

William Russell, _ - . 



Ale.xander Reed, Waterville, Oct. 

J . Roemer, Toledo, May 1 4 

Erwin P. Raymond, Toledo,^ May 9 

Paul Raymond, Toledo, June 

W. L. Rowland, Toledo, Nov. 16 

Samuel S. Reed, Toledo, Eeb. 17 

Mrs. Harriet Rodgers, East Toledo, 

James W. Ross, Perrysburg, Oct. 

Mrs. J. W, Ross, Perrysburg,. ..June 

W. H. Reed, Toledo, ...Jan. 

J. Austin Scott, Ann Arbor, . May 24 

Samuel B. Scott, Toledo, dec'd, July 

Horace Sessions, Defiance, dec'd, Oct. 30 

Oliver Stevens, East Toledo, Oct. 

Denison B. Smith, Toledo, 



Thomas Southard, Toledo, dec'd, May 

Jessup W. Scott, Toledo, dec'd,.. ..June 

J. B. Smith, 

Peter H. Shaw, Toledo, 

George Spencer, Toledo, 

Joseph K. Secor, Toledo, 



James Smith, Toledo, Sep. 

Shibnah Spink, Perrysburg, ..Apr. 

J. J. Smiih, Sep. 15 

Henry Seabert, Toledo, dec'd, Oct. 8 

H. T. Smith, Toledo, deq'd, Apr. 

I. K. Seaman, East Toledo,. June 13 

Mrs. Mary Spafford 



Daniel R. Stebbins, Toledo, dec'd, Sep. 

.\ndrew Stephan, . - 

U'illiam A. Scott, Swanton, Apr. 

J. V. Straight, Dec. 

Charles I. Scott, Toledo, Oct. 



[838. 
[832. 

1835. 
,839. 

^835. 
t833. 
:83i. 

834. 
[836. 

:833- 
'833. 
[846. 
[847. 
[834. 
r849. 
[850. 
1832. 

f845- 
[834. 

552. 
1843- 
■835- 
'833- 
[S32. 
[836. 
[832. 
[832. 

'833- 
^823. 
[836. 
1840. 
[834. 
^833- 
^835. 
^833. 
[838. 
^832. 

= 835- 

■835- 
;838. 

'839- 



74 Maitmce Valley Pioncej- Association. 

J. E. Scofield, Florida,-- Oct. 

W. H. H. Smith, Toledo,. ' Oct. 

James F. Shepard, Toledo, ' Dec. 

Levi Snell, Toledo, Aug. 1 5 

Thomas J. Southard, Toledo,.. Nov. 24 

Samuel Stettiner, Toledo, July 8 

Charles L. Spencer, Toledo, Oct. 6 

Joseph M. Spencer, Toledo July 25 

W. H. Scott, Toledo, 

A. T. Stebbins, Toledo, 

George Stebbins, Toledo, 



F. J. Scott, Toledo, Apr 

Mrs. R. C. Stowe, Toledo, 

Mrs. A. F. Stowe, Toledo, 

James F. Stubb, 



Horace Machen, Toledo, Aug. 15 

E. Tuller, Perrysburg, . Oct. 2 1 

S. B. Thornton, Feb. 

Miss Taylor, May 25 

Thomas Tiernan, Toledo, June 

AVillard Trowbridge, Fulton Co., May 19 

W. Tappan, Apr 

Perry Thomas, Wood Co 



Henry Thorner, Toledo, . Sep. 2 1 

Lyman T. Thayer, Toledo, 

Perry B. Truax, Toledo, 



R. H. Timpany, Toledo, Oct. 15 

James Trenton, June 8 

Cornelius Trowbridge, Oct. 

L. W. Taft, , Apr. 

Mrs. AVm. Taylor,. May, 

Adaline Thomas, . -July 15 

J. Vanfleet, Waterville, 

J. Van Tassel, dec'd, - 



John Van Gunten, .Dec. 

Thomas Vanstone, Oct. 

H. Warren, Perrysburg, 13ec. 

A. B. Waite, Toledo, , ...Sep. 

J. S. Whitney, 'J'oledo, June 15 

S. H. Wolfinger,... Apr 

George Weddell, May 

J. Washner,.. ..Aug. 

W. Watson, Jan. 

Thomas Watts, Waterville, July 14 



'833- 
849. 
^835- 
^835- 
:84i. 
[850. 
[846. 
[850. 

833- 
[846. 

[848. 

^833- 
^831. 
'833- 
:834- 
:833- 
'839- 
[837. 

t835- 
:839. 

[834. 
'834. 
^835- 
845- 
[843. 
:842. 
1843- 
^835- 
[834. 
[847. 
^835. 
^835. 
:829. 

[829. 
1834. 
[852. 

'835- 
[843. 

[834. 
[834. 

537- 
[848. 

^835- 
[844. 



Maumee Valley Pioiieer Association. 

John Webb, Perrysburg, 

Mrs. Sarah Wood, Toledo, 

Oscar White, Toledo, - Aug. 1 2 

Morrison R. Waite, Washington, 1). C, Oct. 21 

C. D. Woodruff, Toledo, ..Apr. 2 

Willard V. Way, Perrysburg, dec'd, Apr. 13 

E. J. Woodruff, East Toledo,... --June 18 

Luther Whitmore, Apr. 

Mrs. R. Woodward, Lucas Co., . . - 

Eber Wilson, Wood Co., dec'd, .- June 1 8 

Martin Weaver, — 

N. A. Whitney, West Toledo, dec'd, 

Hiram Walbridge, New York, dec'd, 

Horace S. Walbridge, Toledo, 

Heman D. Walbridge, Toledo, 

Ebenezer Walbridge, Toledo, Apr. 

David Wilkinson, Perrysburg, dec'd, ..-. 

Thomas J. Webb, Perrysburg, dec'd, 

Mrs. A. B. Waite,- Toledo, Sep. 

J. H. Whitaker, Toledo, 

George E. Welles, Toledo, Aj)r. 

W. H. Whitaker. Toledo,. .'^pr. 2 

George Watkins, Toledo, J an. 17 

W. S. Waite, Toledo, Sep. 

J. W. White, Toledo, Mar. 6 

John A. Waite, Toledo, Sep. 

J. W. Walterhouse, Toledo, Apr. 25 

M. L Wilcox, Toledo, ' Apr. 1 6 

Jonathan Wood, Toledo, .. Nov. 

Maro VV'heeler, Toledo, June 28 

Christ Wheeler, Toledo, _. Apr. 15 

Louis Wachenheimer, Toledo, May 

Emery P. Willey, Toledo, Oct. 1 8 

Alonzo H. Wood, Toledo, Oct. 14 

Charles West, Toledo, J une 

James Winans, Toledo, May 1 2 

E. T. Waite, Toledo, ..Oct. 16 

C. H. Whitaker, Toledo, Sep. 6 

W. H. Whitmore, Toledo, 

Henry Wilcox, Toledo, 

S. B. Worden, Aug. 10 

Samuel ^L Young, ..June 10 



75 



[822. 

'833- 
[838. 
[838. 
'835- 

t834- 
[836. 
1825. 
1843. 
[823. 
836. 
'834. 
'833- 
'833- 
'833- 
[836. 
[818. 
[818. 

1843- 
:844. 
[8^9. 
:85i. 
[849. 
1843. 
[836. 

1843- 
846. 
[850. 
^831. 
1852. 
[850. 
[850. 
[844. 

'843- 
[847. 
1844. 
[846. 
1846. 

834- 
:834. 

■835- 



\ " '-U /«9 J. 



LB My "06 



?}avW?5J 



